Moonlight
by Zephyrsword
Summary: Team RWBY and JNPR face great trials when stories of the shattered moon become real. Jaune must save another's life, Blake desires to be human, Weiss doesn't want to be alone anymore. Ruby must uncover the legacy of the Pendragons and the Moonstone before time runs out and all in the meanwhile, her world around her begins to fall apart. Written to follow the end of Volume 1.
1. A Friendly Duel?

**I'm not sure how long this one will be, but it may not be too much longer than what Pharaoh's Gate was. I wanted to use this as a chance to visually express some theories I have for the RWBY series and possible conflicts that arise in the future. I hope you enjoy it! - Zephyr**

* * *

The top of the desk began collecting dust. Not the magical stones of various colours that helped empower the people on the world, but the icky flakes of dirt and grime that were made visable with the blinding glare of morning sunlight. A cloth went to it and some gentle rubbing, before the white haired girl threw it fustratingly into the upper bunk she stood next to. It landed in the face of a girl with short red hair that was once sleeping peacefully, but alas, no more.

The dirt cloth blocked her abhorrently loud snoring causing her to choke from the dirt before forcefully sneezing herself awake. Around her eyes was a black beowolf inspired sleeper mask, complete with cute red eyes. They blocked her vison as she sat up trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Somehow, before she had a chance to lift the blockade from her eyes, she voiced the opposing white-haired woman's name. "Weiss!" The poor red head blinked, trying to wake up from the sudden surprise. Before the victim had a chance to speak further, she was greeted by a rather harsh and loud retort.

"Ruby Rose! Just because it's the weekend doesn't mean you can not clean up after yourself!" Weiss seemed in a sour mood, a usual attitude that poor Ruby had to endure on a daily basis. The angry Weiss Schnee was already fully clothed in her field attire; She wore a snow white v-shaped shirt and pastel blue jacket with expanded cuffs at the wrists. She wore an abhorrently short hoop-skirt that revealed her bare legs as if she were wearing a giant snowflake.

"You're _supposed_ our team leader." The white-head placed a hand on her hip and tilted her head. "You should be doing your part for the dorm AND the combat field."

Ruby lazily grunted Weiss's harsh words off and ignored her in favour of checking the adjacent beds. The top bunk had a blonde sleeping with a brown dog-faced pillow. Yang Xiao Long. She was Ruby's adoptive older sister, hence why they lacked any notable resemblance. Somehow, Yang had managed to sleep through Weiss's tantrum and probably for the best; on rare occasions when she got mad, it was something to make even Weiss tremble. The lowest bunk was empty; the final member of the team RWBY, was not present.

"Oh hey," Ruby asked, changing the subject.

"What now!?" Weiss complained, trying her best to hold onto a pointless fight with the girl.

"Where's Blake?"

"No idea. She was up before me this morning. Probably plotting against my family or something." Weiss quite clearly had some kind of grudge with her as well. Ruby sighed. Once Weiss had got going on a rampage it was hard to bring her down. Before long a knock was heard at the door, the inevitable distraction the poor little girl needed. Ruby tiptoed over and opened it ajar to see who the visitor was. Her eyes met with bulging blue eyes trying to cram the person they belonged to through the door. "HELLO!" The woman behind the door shouted at the top of her lungs, forcing Ruby to jump back in utter suprise a few feet. Ruby then went back to the door and peeped back "Hi Nora," she sounded like a tiny whispering mouse in comparison.

Nora shouted back, less loudly before but still filled with a concerning amount of joy. "Pyrrah told me, to tell you to come train with us since it's our day off~ Lot's of fun-fun things too, y'know?"

"Sure." Ruby nodded. "I wasn't really planning much this weekend aside study for our exam anyways."

"Ohhh exam? More like PARTY!" Nora slapped her hands together excitedly. "Ren told me we can show off our skills and stuff!"

"... with limitation. We don't need the town buried under rubble." Ruby barely managed to finish her sentence when Nora was called off for goodness knows what reason. Probably Lie Ren again.

As Ruby shut the door behind her softly with a muffled clang she heard Yang in the make-shift bunk bed behind her yawn loudly as she slowly began to wake up. Arms outstretched, she seemed in a chipper mood. "Good morning everybody!"

Weiss still didn't seem in the slightest bit of a positive mood. Ruby just sighed expressively and shrugged it off.

* * *

After getting prepared, dressed and all squeaky clean-feeling; the three girls made their way outside of the Academy of Beacon. Ruby, much like Weiss wore a puffy short skirt, but it was black as night and had frills as red as roses. She wore a red cape with a hood that was down, making her appear like a certain character from a fairy tale about a wolf in the woods. Yang however, was much more casual in her dress sense. She wore a lot of leathers, a bright orange scarf and colossal boots. Much like her golden name, her hair was bright blonde, long and wild, much like her personality. As they walked, Yang casually outstretched her hands and casually clicked her bones in her fingers. "So where are team JNPR hanging out today?"

Ruby pointed to a patch of trees hanging over the walls of Beacon. "Just in the clearing of that small woodland where the flowers bloom. They said that they would be training there. You know there'll be a pretty big mission in a few days time right?"

"Yeah of course!" Weiss cried out with her arms waving as if she was trying to cover up that she didn't know. She hated the thought of not being anything less than perfect and it was more than obvious on the surface. _"I got to do MY best so that I can uphold the Schnee family name."  
_

After some short pacing, the girls made their way through the gate of Beacon to the outer grounds. Ahead of the cobbled pathway leading out of the college setting was a large tree signifying the gateway to the woodland. Under the branches of the tree sat a brown haired boy, perhaps 2 years younger than Ruby herself. He sat in mid-length grass off the side of the path and looked like he had some kind of sketchbook in his hands. Rather than be engrossed in painting, he was talking to a girl in black, who seemed familiar to the group of girls. Dressed in a tight black and white costume with long black hair and an abhorrently large black bow engaged conversation with him. Weiss folded her arms from afar and cocked her eye suspiciously "Just what sort of schemes is she up to this time?"

Yang flipped her hands into the air "You still have some growing up to do Weiss. Just because she's a Faunus doesn't make her any less of a friend. She's part of Team RWBY now."

Ruby waved at the final member of their four-girl team. She cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone. "Hey Blake!"

The girls ran to her as she finished her conversation with the younger boy. He seemed rather timid up close. Under his ragged tatty brown hair was a set of two emerald coloured eyes and he shyly went back to drawing in his book trying to look away from the girls in bashfulness. Blake slanted an eye towards Ruby Rose behind subtly waved back. "Hey."

"What's up? Who's this cute little kid?" Ruby asked, trying to eye over his drawing. The poor boy pulled his book up to try and hide the picture from her, but she still managed to make out a black creature on it with a white mask. It looked like a Grimm, but not one she had seen before. It looked more like a four-legged lizard with large horns. "Heeey, that looks really cool!"

Ruby's big sister also became interested. "Really? That good? Let me see!" Suddenly the red head and the blonde where looming over the little boy with overexcited expressions, scaring him.

"You're getting too close...you're kinda scaring me."

Blake grabbed them both by the scruff of the collar and pulled them back. "His name is Uther. I was just asking him a few questions as to why he's so close to the Beacon Academy." Ruby and Yang's arms dangled like little creepy fangirls.

"I come here for a little inspiration, that's all." The boy leaned his head back against the tree. "I don't get along very well with my father... so I come out here and draw things from my imagination. Something about this place makes me feel closer to home."

Ruby applauded his talent before realising that she, Yang and Weiss hadn't come out all this way for no reason. "Hey Blake, JNPR want us to meet with them a little further into the woods. We should go as a team."

Blake smiled and nodded with her weird passive expression she always had. "Yeah, I figure it was related to our secret mission when the weekdays kick off again, so all the training we can get would be worth our time. I left the dorm early for that reason, sorry for leaving you to guess where I was." she then bowed at her error. With some disagreement with Weiss, they eventually moved on together into the forest, leaving the boy to his own devices. The Schnee heir still wasn't fully convinced about who the boy was. Blake didn't openly talk to strangers without reason; and of course Weiss dropped into her usual anxious internal anxiety fit again. In short, Weiss didn't like White Fang members; even if they were former members due to the amount of damage they had inflicted on her fathers company.

* * *

Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Nora Valkryie and Pyrrah Nikos, members of the team JNPR were practising on the clearing of the small woodland. Dotted around were small patches of flowers of purple and white which gave the surroundings a relatively calming atmosphere. Jaune Arc, the yellow-headed leader of the group sporting his silver armour and black hoodie had just finished exchanging some gentle blows with Pyrrah's spear against his own sword. Pyrrah looked sort of like a female gladiator in a collesseum; she wore a gold decoration on her head, around her neck and on her chest arms and legs. He emerald eyes looked into Jaune with some caring support "Remember," The redhead said as she thrust her spear forward to meet his sword "This is just a warm up. Don't hold back when we battle for real, okay?"

Jaune whimpered and nodded. He was still a bit of a shaky fighter and not one hundred percent experienced in his craft or battle finesse, but Pyrrah tended to help him out a lot with a lot of that. He wondered why Ozpin, head of Beacon and of all people, would have chosen him as the leader of JNPR. Either way, he had taken some advice from Ruby to help him work as a team leader and as a group, rather than worry about the position he was privileged to be given. Pyrrah gave one last hard push with her bronze spear causing Jaune's sword to loosen and fly from his hand to the ground, disarming him as he was distracted for a moment. She smiled "Move too slowly and a Boarbatusk will knock you flying along with your sword just like that."

Jaune merely gulped at the thought of one of those creepy skull-faced pig menaces. He relaxed his arms and snapped a button on his white and gold shield, causing it to fold up into his sword sheath. How so much metal could cleverly compact itself was anybodies guess. He lifted his sword from the ground. Slightly dirty from the Vytal soil, he rubbed it a little with his brown glove so the sheen appeared in it again. Pyrrah offered out her hand to help him back up. "You're getting better."

Jaune accepted her hand but didn't seem fully convinced "No I'm not. I don't think I'll ever beat you at this rate."

Pyrrah placed her hands on both of his shoulders "Listen. It's not about beating me, Nora or Ren. We're here to work together. Each of us are trying our best to be able to overcome all our obsticles as a team."

"I still don't get why you weren't the team leader." Jaune woefully questioned.

"Consider me more the advisor of the group." Pyrrah chuckled. "Besides, I think with you being leader, you have a lot more room to grow." She released her grip from him, leaving Jaune to his own devices. It was then behind them they could both hear the kick of grass to the south. It wasn't their other members, Nora and Ren, since they were to the east of the forest goofing off; at least, Nora definitely was. Ren wore a green asian tunic and baggy cream pants. His hair was short and as black as night, with a single magenta highlight. Nora, whom Ruby saw earlier could now be fully seen. She had mid-length pumpkin-coloured hair and a white and black uniform with silver armour plating. She seemed to openly poke Ren on the face several times as if he was some kind of toy.

A rustle of grass in the distance.

Jaune noticed the bright contrasting gold of Yang's hair in the foliage background, soon followed by Weiss, Ruby and Blake, completed the team RWBY in front of him. Delicate at a glance, they were a group of skilled fighters, capable to surpass him and be a worthy match for his team. Ruby, the team leader of RWBY, waved at Jaune when she caught eyes with him spread a cheerful grin on her face. She strode over the grass towards him ahead of her other teammates and held out her hand in greeting once more. "How's it going Jaune?" She glanced at Nora and Ren in the background, the former of which let out a loud goofy moan as she swooped down her hammer. Ruby's eyes widened in suprise at Nora's frequently odd behaviour.

Jaune noticed Ruby's glance at his goofier team mate and attempted to distract her from it. "S-so, how are you lovely ladies doing?"

"Great!" Ruby responded. "So, we'll be training here? Seems like a really good spot." She waltzed forward into the grassy surroundings like a curious schoolgirl.

Jaune placed his hand behind his head nervously."Yeah, we'll need to be at our best if we want to perform well at the physical exam tommorrow. We'll be going up against a ton of other teams... maybe even you guys."

Pyrrah waved her hand down and shrugged away Ruby's downer mood. "There'll be no need to be worried. No matter what happens, we'll still be your friends. A little win or loss shouldn't be getting you down. On the flipside, it will allow us to work together a bit better in a sort of competitive sense."

Runy sighed with relief and relaxed her shoulders. "Well, when you put it that way, it doesn't seem too bad."

In the background behind her, Yang was crouched down looking at a large purple flower. In the center of its white pollinated center was a yellow and black striped bumblebee. Blake looked over her shoulder in curiosity. As Yang watched the poor shy creature buzz off of the flower out of the girl's presence, the loose pollen from the flower caused her to sneeze. "Achoo!"

Blake jolted back a bit, nearly into the tree behind her before maintaining her balance and facepalming.

Pyrrah launched the spear that was once tucked away from her back somewhere and she threw it up a little into the air before catching it. "Perhaps we can train together, we might end up learning a thing or two."

With a click of a gear, the spear folded into some kind of rifle weapon and she knelt down and practised pointing with it. Jaune got a little panicked when she aimed it at his head for a brief second but she pulled it away when she saw his whimpering face. Jaune relaxed his tense body and exhaled a sigh of relief. "Pyrrah, I hate to admit it but on very, very rare occasions you scare me just a little more than Nora."

"Well," Ruby stumbled around with her arms loose and swinging. "If you guys are alright with it, I'd be glad to at least. Not sure about the girls though." Ruby felt a chill as a cold hand landed on her shoulder behind her. Weiss had caught in on the banter "Why do you think I would pass up a chance to analyse our competition." Despite the brash delivery of her words, Ruby nodded in agreement. "What about Blake and Yang?"

Even though they were several paces away, Blake heavily nudged Yang to attention and informed the blonde about Pyrrah's plan... somehow. It was due to her acute hearing ability as a Faunus, but that was something team JNPR didn't know about; they just assumed it was her Semblance or Aura or whatever strange power she had. Yang walked over to Ruby and Weiss as they talked with Jaune and Pyrrah. For a while, they exchanged a few laughs.

Within the space of ten minutes, the banter had changed to a quieter, more tense mood. The groups had scattered, in the center was Yang standing a good distance apart from Lie Ren who looked back at her in a relaxed pose with his arms folded. Yang's body language was quite different, she stood with one foot forward and her arms prepped and ready as if she were about to run the 100 meter dash. On the sidelines stood the remaining members of JNPR and RWBY as they carefully observed the battle that was about to commence. Ruby Rose noticed the drastic difference in their stances "Ren looks so calm. He looks no where near the type to pick a fight with you." She watched as he casually warmed up his shoulders.

In the distance, Nora held out her silver rocket launcher-like weapon skyward. "May the best Ren win!" she cried, as if she was almost drunk (bearing in mind this is normal behaviour for Nora) and she relaxed her arms, before pulling the trigger launching silver bullets into the sky.

**Start**. Yang's small yellow bracers locked over her wrists like metal gauntlets which snapped and clicked like a loaded shotgun. One warning punch from them launched an explosive bullet of fire at Ren, who remained still and calm. The bullet hit the dirt where Ren was standing, causing a massive blast of earth to burst into the sky before falling in a dusty debris cloud. Yang stood there still ready to fight. She couldn't relax until she could see Ren fully defeated.

Ruby gasped as she watched Yang utterly decimate the opposite end of the field in a matter of seconds, feeling partially sorry for the poor blades of grass that fell victim to the burning cinders of the blast. It was then she witnessed Ren approach from behind Yang, who was still intent on the now settled dust cloud. Before her fears could be realized; her back was met with a powerful pushing force that launched her to the cratered mess she had created with a roll and tumble, head over heels. She only had seconds to regain her senses, gripping the dirt she stood up to challenge Ren as his approached quickly and swiftly. He didn't currently his usual green pistol blades in his hands.

Blake standing observant with her arms folded and her narrow expression unmoving reinforced this action. "He didn't pull his weapons yet, and relied on some kind of Aura or Semblance power."

Frustrated with missing her mark; Yang shot forth more punches unleashing more bullets. It was then Ren pressed harder with his foot onto the ground, launching himself in the air above the bullets. Like a magician, two green blade guns appeared in either hand and he shot down a rain of bullets upon the golden haired girl. Her hair flared and flickered like a candle and she used one gauntlet as a tiny buckler to rain from the bullets while she used her other hand to launch more shots at Ren. The green-dressed man landed on her with a slam, using his weapons now as blades trying to pierce through her defenses aggressively. Occupied trying to fend him off, Yang pulled out her leg and coiled it round, sweeping him over.

The fighting continued on for a while. Ren was a quick fighter, Yang was fast as well volleying her own array of deviating attacks. Ruby's eye slanted to the side where Weiss was standing. Her head was down, her arms were hunched over in a very unladylike distracted position. Was that a notebook? She was scribbling notes down inside it. "Weiss, are you trying to learn their fighting style so you can win against them?"

"O-of course not!" Weiss pulled her nose from her notepad and gave a stern look back. "I'm merely finding points of which they can improve on the next time!"

Ruby lowered her tone to a whisper so the angry Weiss wouldn't hear her. _"It's still the same thing you know."_ by the time she had turned back to face the duel between Yang and Ren, a large explosion obscured the battlefield. When the smoke cleared both competitors kneeled to the ground unable to stand. Yang's hair was a burning gold flicker of fire; that was until it petered out and lost its vibrant shine. Ren threw his weapons to the side to show he had no intentions of fighting further and Yang merely looked up at him. He held out a soft pale hand in a truce, and Yang accepted it. He noted that her hands were slightly cold from the dirt ground perhaps. "You fight hard." Yang smiled.

Lie Ren smiled and took a bow "You as well."

With a slip of grip; Yang nearly dropped off of his hand. Her vision blurred momentarily, with a sensation of vertigo she nearly tipped to the ground. Ren tightened his grip on her hand hand tried to lift her woozy legs to her feet, but before he knew it she had faded into a slumber. While the party of friends stood in shock at the sidelines, Ruby ran to her side. "Sister!"

Ren lay her on the ground where the Yang opened her eyes briefly. He face was drained of colour and she looked at her younger sibling with a smile on her face. "Don't worry, I'm just a little tierd is all."

Lie Ren placed his hand on her forehead. "She's got a fever. We should stop for today. Ruby, assist me back to Beacon."

"Seems like it's just a flu. Nothing to be panicing over Ruby, really." Pyrrah reassured that the girl's older sister would be alright. "Sometimes sickness gets the best of even the greatest of warriors."

A tense mood loomed over the silent grassy field.

* * *

Yang was now awake and looked at Ruby with a smile as she was being watched over. For a change Ruby was standing on her own two feet; rather than being the one that was being coddled over. In a way, she had hardly noticed the confidence she had now. The seeping light of the sun leaked in, it was still very much daytime but Ruby was stuck taking care of Yang. Blake and Weiss had departed to relax a while under the heavy atmosphere of unrest. Ruby stirred a hot mug of chocolate by the desk. "So, how you feeling right now Yang?" She asked anxiously, rubbing her nails together.

"A little better than I was, thanks." She placed her hand on her forehead "If only I was stronger..."

Ruby shook her head. "Nope. I think you did pretty well for being under the weather when you fought Ren."

Yang smiled. The comfort of her sister's words filled her with a with a beam of hope. However, that wasn't the least of her burdens. She had less than a day and a half to get better and help out her team during the test in several days. Being anything less than well would mean she was putting her team down. As she grew tierd, she fell asleep without realising it. _"I just wish I didn't have any more burdens. I'm already bringing sister and the team down as it is." _But she couldn't tell them. She couldn't tell them about the dark haze of a golden eyed woman staring down on from above in her dreams. She couldn't tell them about the slaughter of hundreds of people she had seen before her eyes or the gauntlets that were once tainted red from blood stains.

Ruby watched over the now sleeping Yang. She grabbed the covers a bit and pulled them up so Yang was a little more awry of the cold. She then shut the curtains to block out the sun made her way to the door. Before she did so, she looked back at the room as a last check to see if her sister was alright. "Yang. I'll be going with the others back to the entrance of Beacon. Keep safe." With that, Ruby shut the door behind her.


	2. A Call to Urgency

Weiss was pacing up and down the cobbled entrance of Beacon. She was in her usual unsettled mood with her arms folded. "Ruby sure likes to take her time."

Blake sighed and distracted herself from the noise of grumbling behind her. "Do you really care that little about Yang?"

"No... not so much that. It's just I wish Ruby hadn't made us wait this long." Weiss looked at Blake who was now out of her sight. Scaling up the side of the outer Beacon wall, Blake had ascended quickly to the top of it and was peering outward to get a better view. Weiss shrugged. "Do you always have to climb everything you see? It makes me wonder why I didn't notice you were a Faunus sooner!"

Blake hushed Weiss almost immediately. Revealing whom she was would have been a death sentence to her reputation as Faunus were discriminated against pretty direly. She focused her eye to the same tree she had stood under earlier, and once again she saw the same boy sitting under it painting. _"The same faunus boy." _Even with her acute senses she still couldn't tell what type he was even up close. Weiss finally made a sigh of relief when she saw a tired Ruby running at an extremely quick pace. "I'm so sorry guys!" She flailed her arms in the air and was clearly not looking where she was going, promptly crashing and tumbling into Weiss knocking her clean over.

Ruby lay on top of her dazed and Weiss pushed desperately to get her off. After the spinning Grimm beowolves around her head stopped spinning and barking, Ruby shakily got to her feet. Weiss stood up and dusted herself off from her skirt and sleeves "Watch where you're going!"

"Sorry."

"Sorry? It's been near enough four whole hours."

"Sorry again?"

"Nevermind. So long as Yang is alright I guess." Weiss grunted as she relaxed her arms. She very briefly surfaced a smile, deep down, she was at ease.

Peace didn't last a moment longer when with a snap and a click, the sound of bullets could be heard from the sky. Ruby looked up to the wall, Blake was gone. With the woosh of a ribbon, Blake lunged forth her gun blade the Gambol Shroud and struck down the head of giant black snake head that pulled itself out of one of the tree tops. The creature was known by hunters and huntresses as a King Taijitu, a dual-headed snake of yin and yang that could lunge with amazing duality whilst driving a wound of fear with its sheer ferocity. Blake crouched down on the monsters head and rode it for a while as it raced through the air into the forest. Her eyes met with the other head of the snake who had become furious at her deviation and made a wide arching lunge for her, creating a drastic shadow above her head. Almost vanishing into thin air with nothing more than a blurred after image of Blake to look at, the snakes large protruding fangs locked into the neck of its connected other kin.

With a rustle of grass, Blake landed with the thud onto the ground with one hand out to soften her fall. She noticed the boy next to her shivering with fear. This time he stood clutching the book in his hands shaking. Underneath the roaring pain of the Grimm snake monster, Weiss planted a black glyph on the ground underneath her which suddenly changed red launching her skyward. As the white head of the snake flailed angrily knowing it had nigh murdered half of its own being, Weiss swiped her sword across the sky. The barrel of her silver Myrtenaster changed and clicked as the dust ammunition in it rotated to a light blue vial. A trail of frozen ice pathed its way from the sword tip and directed itself towards the white King Taijitu head as it went for Weiss in a fit of rage, allowing it to be consumed by the ice. Its body could still move and slither albeit sluggishly. As Weiss landed back down onto a thick branch of a tree she watched as Ruby joined in.

Ruby held a compact red folded scythe named the Crescent Rose; only this weapon currently looked like an oversized red Magnum with a huge barrel. She clicked the trigger below it so it was fully loaded and fired blast of flame towards her frozen target. It exploded on impact, causing the head of the snake to be blasted into ice shards. A single shot and a single round of ammunition was needed to wipe the beasts head clean off; with the help of Weiss' frozen dust magic. Ruby sighed as she watched an empty silver clip of her ammunition rounds fall onto the ground. "That was kinda scary. That Grimm was awfully close to our school."

"More like a foolish Grimm. It would have stood no chance against the people in this academy anyway." Weiss spoke slyly as she sheathed her revolver-sword back into its holster. She dusted off her snow-white dress of invisible leaves and splinters and hopped back down to the trunk of the trees.

Uther was still shivering with fright so Ruby went over to cuddle the cute little boy. As she went over to him with a pleasant expression on her face, he took several steps back. On closer inspection, Ruby noticed he had a black tail. "A Faunus?"

Blake held out her hand telling her to stop her advancement. "Yeah."

Little Uther began to appear teary eyed. "Are you going to treat me bad now because you know what I am?"

Ruby began panicking and flailed her arms. "No, that's not what it..."

"Anyway, it's dangerous out here with Grimm about, so I'll escort him home." Blake knelt down to the level of the young boy and held out her hand. "I'm no different to you, there's no need to be afraid. These guys are here to help you out as well." It was rare for Blake to smile so openly, she had a surprising hidden talent of being able to deal with kids. Uther wiped his eyes as he continued to snivel. The warm gentle smile he was met with cheered him up a little and while his eyes were still damp, the tears stopped flowing. It was then Blake turned to her leader in red. "Ruby, I don't know how long I'll be, but I should be back before nightfall."

Ruby had no choice but to agree to the terms and nodded. "Alright. We'll have to improvise I guess."

Weiss sighed. "I would much prefer that we didn't get sidetracked and could actually train some more, but I think a fight with Grimm counts at least... even if it was a small challenge."

Ruby placed her hand on her chin and began to think openly. "I'm actually surprised we wiped out a King Taijitu so fast actually. Me combining my Crescent Rose with your ice-dust stuff really works out great!"

"Schnee Manufactured Dust. Top of the line, top quality Dust." Weiss was not fond of Ruby's sloppy language. "But you're right, it would be wise to utilize some good combination attacks if we want to be able to pass."

"We still don't even know what the exam will be about yet. I just hope Yang gets better before then."

"Oh she'll have to, otherwise it would be a massive disadvantage if we were down even one team member."

"I don't know how easy that will be though." Ruby loosened her arms so they dangled and had her had to the ground in uncertainty. Her foot kicked up some dirt from the ground as she began to think of her bright and wild sister who lay in her bed back in the dorm. 

* * *

Yang didn't realise it, but she had fallen asleep again. Opening her eyes once again, she rolled from side to side in bother. Never before had she desired to sleep like a rock in fear of dreaming uncertain thoughts. Every time she shut her eyes she could see the blood on her Ember Ceclia's and two pillars of fire in the far distance among a crimson skyline.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she suddenly sneezed; a stark reminder that she was still under the weather. She had stayed in bed far longer than she was comfortable though and as someone who placed vigorous efforts into her physical activity she desired nothing more than to raise up from the rags that lay on top of her and get back to her studies. Clutching the foundry wooden rim just at the lower side of the bed to her right she pulled herself into a seated position like a rusty lever.

"_My sister Ruby Rose smiles so much and tells me about all her problems, but there are still things I haven't told her. I wish I could have the chance to tell her... but that will be the day I'll lose everything."_

* * *

"Another Grimm." Blake drew the Gambol Shroud from the holster on her back like a shinobi of the dusk. As the sunset grew increasingly dark with each passing minute, she pushed the faunus boy to the ground fairly forcefully. Several pairs of eyes stared back at her from several directions under the shroud of dark. "Keep down."

"But Blake...!" Uther's words didn't reach her focus. Her sharp eye could make out the shapes of their bodies and the helmets on their heads. They weren't like the Grimm she had learned about in classes. They were black lumbering lizards with thick bodies and a white mask in blood red stencils. They had shards of dust gemstones down their backs like spines that appeared slightly white in colour and corroded. Seeking her opportunity while the monsters stood there and observed her Blake unsheathed the Gambol Shroud to create two blades. One was the thick edge of the sheath like a meat cleaver, the other a skinny rapier. The rapier clicked and folded into a bladed gun attached by a black ribbon and Black threw it forward to shoot the gemstone.

The gun pistol let free a fiery bullet that impacted the spine, blasting it into pale green shardlings. "What...?" Blake gasped as she hopped back. The angered Lizard-Grimm hurled a lumbering claw in anger inciting the rage of the other Grimm behind it.

Another claw swung from the Grimm and Blake hurtled backwards to dodge it. "Normally Dust would detonate on impact. But it just crumbled into nothing as if it were chalk." With her plan to blow up the monster in one quick assault was trounced, she had to rethink her strategy. However, she didn't have long to react. More and more of the lizard grimm kept emerging, all as big as an Ursa. She and Uther were surrounded. Dragging her blade back into her hands she bit her lip and relaxed a moment as she observed them circling her and the boy. "There's just so many of them, where did they all come from?"

Uther's pupils shrank and he dropped his sketchbook on the grassy floor. "Why do they look like the monsters in my drawings?" Blake grabbed the boy by the with both arms. He was heavy, but she was still able to leap over the monsters and landed with a tumble. As Uther struggled to stand up, Blake still lay there on the ground with her eyes trying to lock on to the group of devils. They were already looking at her and lumbering in her direction. "We need to run before we get surrounded by them again." Blake was sure she could handle them, but with someone vulnerable at her side it made things a huge handicap to her combat ability. Hopping back, she turned and ran whilst grabbing Uther's small arm in her direction.

Trees raced behind them like rows of cars on a motorway. The black shadows under the boughs would normally be a match for any human but Blakes golden eyes could still make out every detail on each trunk. Her heart raced as she listened for the growls of the monsters behind her get quieter and quieter and grew anxious if she would run into any more. The pathway curved upwards onto a hill where no more trees stood, until it overlooked a cliff face. Putting out her boot, she slowed her speed to a stop and checked behind her to see if the monsters had gone. "I don't hear any signs of them just yet."

Meanwhile, little Uther looked outwards over the cliff. As Blake wandered over to see, the cliff wasn't all that high up. It overlooked an old ruins covered up by several trees. Her eyes widened "I've never seen this area in Vale before."

Uther sighed and drooped down into a knelt position. "It seems so familiar. Maybe my father talked about it once."

"When I said I'd take you home, I didn't think I'd have to go this far out into the woods."

"Sorry..."

**_Rustle._ **

"...Shhh!" Blake placed a finger to her mouth to issue silence and her bow twitched a little. She could hear the roar of the same Grimm she had been running from. "This is pretty bad." She looked down the cliff and noticed some openings she could land on and work her way down. "I hope you don't mind going for a ride again."

"Not really, but do I have a choice...?" Uther couldn't even finish his sentence when he was already grabbed by the woman. Then she leapt down; the boy felt the velocity as gravity pulled him back down. Blake's hard landings made the rock under her feet crumble and crack. _"One more jump should do it." _

She jumped again. Something was off though. Her foot slipped forward at the edge of the next clump of rock before the earth underneath her completely gave way, causing her to tumble down with Uther in her arms. With a hiss of dirt, the pair landed at the bottom, despite being slightly dazed and muddy. Blake got back up and helped Uther up before she looked towards the large letter box opening of the ruins. It was completely consumed by dirt from the top side, making it impossible to be noticed directly from above. Oddly large squarish brown rocks littered the vast flat opening in front of it reminiscing incredibly old slabs. From her perspective it looked a lot like a dissected subway station without the track platform.

Blake was curious to explore it but couldn't do so with a mission on her hands. Her eyes scanned for him, but he was no where in sight. She checked behind the large slab, but couldn't find him there vanish. She could have sworn he was just by her a few minutes ago. Not sure if she was dreaming she peered by the cliff edge. Not there either. Utterly perplexed by what was happening, a light from the cave distracted her. Like a single tiny Christmas light it flashed white, blue, yellow, red, green and purple inviting her in. "Uther...?" Blake asked aloud and stepped forth into the wide tunnel. "If you're in her, come back out, we need to go."

Her voice echoed the hall, but no answer.

As she moved through the black void, she inspected the green slabs of stone that made up the walls and floors. It had mostly been untouched besides the collection of dirt from the winds at the entrance. She continued to follow the light down the tunnel but it seemed to stretch on forever with no sign of the scenery changing. Then, to her suprise, she made out crumbled bones and old skeletal corpses. Some where of man, some were beasts. An overwhelming chill and the silence gave her the odd suspicion she was being watched.

Finally, she had reached the source. The tunnel had ended after half a mile of trekking down it and the beam of multi-hued lights belonged to a large orb that shifted and melded in different colours. It was some kind of offering and surrounding it were some very familiar looking statues of the strange Grimm she had seen earlier. It would have only made sense if this what the place they had originate from, but now the cave was completely devoid of them. With little understanding of the place or purpose of the stone Blake reached out to touch it.

"Seize her."

A group of men dropped from an opening above. She couldn't make them out right away since they were behind her and her hands hand been bound by a rather large one who had twisted her hands behind her back into a less than comfortable position. Before she could react, she was kicked hard in the back and pushed to the ground. As she turned her head around with her check to the floor, she could see a boot of a man besides her pacing rather furiously.

"And here I thought you would actually put up a fight. I was sorely mistaken." The man had that dark formal and strict tone to his voice.

"What do you want? Why are you in here?" Blake demanded, her brows narrowing. She could smell the scent of him. This man and his cohorts stunk of Faunus, but much like with Uther, she couldn't figure out what type they were.

"We're here to deliver your justice in a neat little package courtesy of the White Fang and Ms. Fall herself."

"You're members of White Fang?" Blake demanded. Another push into her back made her position even more uncomfortable, unable to break free.

"Not quite. We're merely the middle men. Know me as Mordred."

"More like hired goons." Blake scolded. She gasped when a block of red dust came near her face.

"I would hold the sharp tongue if I were you. Or your head and tounge will be forcefully extracted from your own body!"

* * *

It was getting late. Ruby looked eagerly out at the moonlight sky from her dormitory for Blake's return but with each passing hour her friend never returned. Weiss came into the room and shut the door behind her, looking up at the rather down looking girl. "Well we weren't able to practise all that much but I did find out a few things about CRDL combat strategy, they'll be a piece of cake when we face them." Weiss noticed Ruby's sad puppy face and immediately scoffed at her. "What's up now? Yang is a lot better than she was before, we made sure of that didn't we?"

"Yeah, I was just wondering why Blake hasn't made it back."

"Maybe that boy's home was further than she thought. That's what happens when she decides to be such a good simaritan." Weiss placed her hands on her hips. "She'll have to return before daybreak or else we'll have to go on an adventure of our own."

Ruby shook her head and leapt from the top bunk onto the ground. Weiss tried to stop her from going out the door by grabbing Ruby's shoulder. "You know what she's like, running off like she does, she'll be back."

Ruby averted her gaze from Weiss. "I... I want to make sure. That Grimm that attacked us so near the school has been bothering me."

Yang heard the two subtly squabbling and pulled herself out of her covers. She had a lot more energy than she had in the morning, her rest had allowed her immune system to fight whatever virus was within it. "A Grimm near the school? But there isn't supposed to be..."

Ruby looked up to the other top bunk where Yang resided in. "Yang!" Ruby noticed that Yang began to stare vacantly. It was then she pulled herself out of her bed, reached for her yellow Ember Cecelia's and made for the door.

She promptly failed though, Ruby and Weiss attempted to stop her, but Yang's own illness stopped her first. She collapsed in a heap on the ground, still conscious, but weak. "That burning witch... Ruby... if you don't do something soon, Blake will...!"

Ruby knelt by Yang and looked into her clouded eyes. "Do you know something? Yang!"

The blonde began to choke and cough, but despite the Schnee usually acting childish over sick indiviuals, she instead moved Ruby aside and grabbed Yang's arm. "Ruby, go after Blake. I'll take care of Yang."

"Ruby... head to the Fabled Forest." Yang uttered as Ruby slowly backed out of the room. "If I had the strength, I'd chase after her."

Ruby acknowledged her older sister's plight even though many questions about her outburst remained unanswered. The girl in black and red made it through the dorm doorway and down the corridor she noticed an individual blocked the bottom end of it. The last thing she needed was one of her teachers reprimanding her for breaking curfew. But no. Instead there was a familiar lady wearing her bronze armour. Ruby screeched to a halt and stopped in front of her. "Pyrrah! What are you doing up this late?"

"I heard the commotion in the other room. It just seems to be one conflict after another with you guys this weekend. Luck doesn't seem to give you a break." Pyrrah seemed awfully sympathetic to the group. She had been kind enough to notice that things had been going everything less than smoothly in a team outside her own. "Actually, to be totally honest, Jaune was the first one to mention it. I wanted to come along with you and find your friend. Unfortunately Nora is sleeping like a log, on top of Ren no less, so I just left those two there."

Ruby made a screwy face and whispered _"...On top of?"_

"Well," Pyrrah waved outwards "We better get going shall we?"


	3. Rescue Mission

Ruby hadn't realized how far out the Fabled Forest was compared to the school. If it was near to where Uther lived, then he must have had to travel a horrendously long way. The sky above her head was pitch dark now and it made things difficult to see. For not working together all that often, she and Pyrrah made a good team. Collecting some wood and scraping it against some red dust, the gladiator in garments made a makeshift torch allowing them to see much more clearly. She lurched their only light through the gloom. The tree leaves where strange here, a sickly orange-green. The grass was much the same. They weren't dead or dying, but they certainly looked that way, it was just a single example of the weird and strange environments in Remnant.

Ruby ducked under a branch in the way and Pyrrah followed. Even reaching the other side, the night was far too quiet. During their passage in the forest, no Grimm were to be seen anywhere. "You'd think we'd have been assaulted by the enemy by now, but there's not a thing in sight," Pyrahh seemed oddly concerned about the situation. It made sense though, personality wise she didn't seem like it but she had won several tournaments in succession and had defeated many Grimm in the past. Even Ruby's own studies in combat proved this. The trees decreased in density and Ruby skipped out of the cramped space. It was then she noticed a book on the floor, the same sketchbook that was owned by Uther. It led upwards and displayed a smudgy drawing of the black Lizard Grimm she had watched him draw earlier that day. She skimmed through it, trying to find clues. Next to the beasts name was in block capitals was 'PENDRAGON'. "That boy must of dropped this, but I have no idea what direction they could have gone to."

"They might have been running from something big, like a Grimm, but I haven't seen anything yet." Pyrrah scouted ahead to look for a lead. "The trees are less dense this way. We should try our luck over there and head back here if it leads to a dead end."

"...it's a dead end." Ruby confirmed as she saw a cliff edge at the end of the pathway. Pyrrah also looked somewhat disappointed but decided to crouch down and hunt for signs of activity anyway. A glint from the ground caught her eye. " A shardling of dust?" she inspected it between her fingers and sighed it off. "There's something wrong with this one. It doesn't have much power left in it as if it has been sapped nearly dry."

"Why do you think that is?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know. I've never seen Dust in this state before. But whatever it is might explain why the forest looks half deceased."

Ruby kicked her foot into the ground in deep thought. "But who would even carry a piece of dead-end Dust?"

The gladiator girl pushed forward towards the cliff edge. "Your guess is as good as mine." She noticed as the cliff face dropped drastically down to a small man made crater below. "Interesting cavern there."

Ruby took a look to peek. She pushed up her hands. "They wouldn't have gone in there... would they?"

"If they were ran from the enemy, it seems like a likely place of shelter." Pyrrah noted trying to consider other possible places in the forest they could have gone. "If anything, it would be a a good place to start."

"You're right." Ruby replied peering down at the cliff face. She noticed the ledges Blake had previously jumped down as a perfect way to climb down, albeit tricky. She clambered down the crumbled edge but slipped quickly in doing so, . Pyrrah prevented herself from physically facepalming and placed her hands on her waist as she looked down. "Well, I guess that's one way of doing it."

As Ruby tried to make her head stop spinning. Pyrrah was already at her side using the detachable shield on her wrist as a means to bear the burdens of her own fall. Shockingly, she still had the torch intact and lit in her hand, but the rush of wind had reduced it to a sickly ember. By patting the flame with oxygen it soon came back to life once again. The setting in front of them appeared much darker than from Blake's point of view. The entrance to the cave descended into a void, invoking creepy thoughts. Unlike Blake however, they did not see the spark of a light inside the tunnel.

Pyrrah marched forward. "Shall we check it out then?"

"Why did you let Ruby go off like that on her own?" Yang questioned back at the dormitory. She had been unable to sleep the entire duration since her sister left.

"Because you can't, isn't that kind of obvious?" Weiss snapped. She was less angry than her usual self because of the hours rolling into the morning causing her to feel somewhat more drowsy. Not only that, but she had the etiquette not to wake up the entire corridor. "Besides, Pyrrah went with her as well. If she's attacked by Grimm and screws up somehow, she'll help her out." Weiss tightened her fist "Honestly, if there's something that you know, you should be telling us. W-we're supposed to be there for each other you know? And Blake too."

Yang nodded rather miserably. "Yeah. Well you see..."

"Yes?"

"The Fabled Forest... when I said the name of that place did it ring a bell with you?"

"Not really." Weiss replied.

"Well it was one of the major places for mining Dust during your grandfathers era. They say that in the past the Faunus there were being forced into the most unimaginable slave labour. They weren't allowed to eat, they were constantly whipped and suffered injury and sickness. They were a type that were once thought to be completely extinct from this planet now. Rumours would have it some of them even lost their souls."

Weiss bit her lip trying to take in harsh information about her father's company. "And how is this relevant to anything? You have no evidence to prove it as such."

"It's only a matter of time before Pyrrah and Ruby do exactly that Weiss." Yang's facial expression and tone of her voice had darkened. It didn't match up well with her usually firey demeanour.

She reflected the shallower times; when she stood in a black hall amongst a group of people in black uniforms. Above the railing was a woman with a spark of fire in her eyes, however her body was completely cloaked in darkness making it nigh impossible to work out the details on her skirt and clothing. Two shadowy figures behind this woman that represented her second in command dragged in a corpse of something or someone. The woman with the flames in her eyes finally spoke. The woman leaned both her arms on the railing above them with her hands holding up her chin in a seductive pose. "You are a select few who have been allowed to bear witness to just a very fragment of the potential of Dust. We use it in our daily lives to live our luxuries, we use it to fight, crush and murder all that stand in our way. It is a destructive, valuable power. But it can also be used to revive the dead. Now don't be surprised by the corpse we use here..."

Yang tried to wipe her mind of the horrific mental images scarred into her brain. She couldn't reveal to Weiss she had once been in league with such a terrible person. _"Much like Blake, I was pulled into an organisation with positive goals, but then..."_

One last stark mental image played back again like an old video tape. "There is a place that holds a very special kind of dust that produces all elements of Dust. Simply removing it with your bear hands is worse than sticking your silly little hands in a nuclear reactor and it will suck out your soul. In other words..."

"Grimm lack souls. When the soul of someone is forceably removed with Dust; they become Grimm." Yang repeated the last sentence to Weiss out aloud.

"Tch, what do you mean by that?" Weiss was getting irritated of Yang beating around the bush.

"Weiss... I'm saying your grandfather's practices may have artificially created some of the Grimm."

"_I she implying that my ancestor created some of the creatures we fight everyday!?"_ The white haired girl had heard enough of it. "Are you out of your mind!? How can you even prove that!?"

"If they go to the Fabled Forest ruins on their own, they'll be eaten by Pendragons or worse...!"

"What the hell is a Pendragon!?"

The sense of urgency in the atmosphere lessened when Jaune marched into the room. He was kind of shy and modest about it and was fairly scared of speaking up against them. "Hey guys, could you keep it down?" It didn't help that he was wearing his blue onesie pyjamas.

"They aren't normal Grimm. They act as Tricksters, they lure people out in the bodies of their former lives they lost and then devour you." Yang replied. Her eyes shifted and she grabbed for her leather jacket again. With one last ounce of strength she aimed for the door a third time using Jaune as a blockade so she could get past him. Weiss didn't even have a chance to stop her whilst she was still trying to break down the bizarre information she had been told. "Grimm are mutated beings from Dust!? What has Ruby put in her mug?"

Poor Jaune Arc was still confused, as usual. "I don't follow."

"I don't know, but I'm going to go find out myself. But god forbid how she knows more than my entire wealth of education could afford!" Weiss marched out of the room in a strop to chase after Yang.

"H-hey, wait!" Jaune stumbled out of the girls now empty room and relaxed his arms in submission. "Why am I always left in the dark?"

–

Pyrrah and Ruby had wondered deep into the tunnel until they hit the dead end. Observing the craft of the statues she recognized that they were some type of Grimm. They were lizard like beings with white masks on their faces but they had never seen them in the wild before or even engaged them in combat. "Woow... those statues look so cool!" Ruby was like her usual kid self again.

Pyrrah however, exerted her focus on the the square hollow in the middle of the statues leading to a large room below. "It looks like there's some kind of pathway down here. Judging by the mechanism it was activated. Pretty recent too."

Meanwhile, Ruby nearly kicked over something on the ground with her foot. She barely noticed it, but it wound around her foot like a snake. She made a weird screechy scream that attracted Pyrrah's attention. "Quieten down a bit!" She leaned over a bit to inspect Ruby's foot. "Hold still a minute."

"Okay." Ruby cringed panicking over what was on her foot. A spider? A snake? A Cockroach?

It was none of those things. Pyrrah tried to pull of the thick black material that had wound its way over Rwby's boot. Holding between her fingers her used the torch in her other hand to reveal it. "It's just a really thick black ribbon."

"It must belong to... Blake..." Ruby's worded seemed to peter out. _"Gah, what if Pyrrah finds out she's a Faunus, Blake will kill me!" _She began to swat her hands nervously, immediately giving herself away.

Pyrrah gave Ruby an odd look as she continued to panic. "Uh? Are you quite alright there Ruby? I think if we follow the hole here down we might be able to find Blake, bearing in mind if that Ribbon really belongs to her. Speaking of which, I've never seen her without it, I wonder what she'd look like."

Ruby squeaked.

"Ruby?"

"I-It was just a spider." Red riding hood fibbed.

Ruby took the black ribbon from the gladiator and attached it to her belt. Shortly after, she wandered to the hole that Pyrrah had been looking in. She tried to estimate how far it went down.

"It might attract some unwanted attention but you could fire your crescent rose down there and see how long it takes to impact. Using that as a measurement, we could figure out how deep it goes."

Ruby seemed to completely ignore Pyrrah's suggestion and instead foolishly hung down from the ledge. She could see a pair of red lights down below that allowed her to make out the floor on the ground. Fortunately it didn't drop down as far as she thought and could easily make a landing. "Hey, there's no need for me to make a noise with Crescent Rose."

"Why not?" Pyrrah asked as she leaned over the edge to join her, her hair dangling. She too saw the lights in the distance. They began to dance and move. "Uhhh..."

"Why are those lights moving?" Ruby blinked and they were suddenly gone. The lady in the greek styled armour took the lead first and lit the way. She remained hesitant and put her free hand close to the spear on her back ready to attack whatever was sharing the room with them.

"Y-you're that girl Ruby aren't you?" A voice spoke out from the darkness. It belonged to a boy, a modest and quiet one at that. It was Uther. He stepped into the view of the torch anxiously. He seemed somewhat dazed and confused, out of place.

"Oh, it's you again you scared me!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Aha, so this is the boy that Blake was supposed to be taking home. Makes one wonder how you got into this dank dungeon in the first place."

"I must have blanked out." Uther explained rubbing the back of his head nervously. "We were running from a group of Pendragons before we reached a weird cave. I don't remember what happened after. Blake was gone and I woke up here."

Ruby had an overwhelming sense of uncertainty. Her inner mind quivered as there were many questions she wanted to ask. Unfortunately, the Faunus boy didn't seem to be able to answer them.

Pyrrah observed the route. "The path forks in only one direction from here. If we follow it, we may find a lead. We might have to face some Grimm ahead, so we should be careful." She wondered over to Ruby and placed a hand on the girls shoulder. "Ruby, I'm trusting you to take this boy to safety."

Uther shook his head. "No. I'm not afraid of the dark. I just feel if I don't come with you, I'll let you down."

Pyrrah shook her head. "No, you're too young to fight right now." It was very rare for Pyrrah to refuse someone, but her words seemed set in stone.

"_You're too young to fight."_

These words resonated with Ruby. They made her slightly angry. Perhaps it was because of how she was belittled in Beacon due to being two years younger than everyone else. Ozpin saw her as a prodigy; many others just saw her as a child. She couldn't let Uther suffer that same subjection. She just couldn't.

"Pyrrah, I think he should come with us."

"Ruby..." Pyrrah's own words silenced her. In the little amount of light that shined on Ruby's face, the woman could clearly see her resolution. Instead of a crazy hyperactive girl, there was a face of a warrior. Pyrrah admired it, she almost wished that Jaune could snap to that sort of mindset when the time called for it. Rather than turn Ruby down, she nodded. "Alright. We will take his safety into both our hands."

–

Eyelids fluttered open. As Blake regained her vision, she could see her captors faces more clearly. They looked up at her as if she was some kind of sacrifice. She felt she was still within the same dungeon, but in some kind of other room she had missed. This part of the dungeon was a much wider space that intermingled with the structure of a cave; the inside was mostly unfinished with wooden planks and stone rock. There was one or two discarded broken pickaxes and a tipped over bucket as if it was once used as a mine.

Looking down upon the man below her, she noted he was relatively aged, perhaps in his late 50's. His facial hair was a dark oak with a relatively standard mustache and stubbled beard.

"I don't understand, what do you want from me?" Blake questioned fairly harshly.

"We are waiting for them to come to rescue you."

"Them? _Who?_" Blake could only think of her other teammates, the other members of RWBY. The mere thought gave her a surge of detest that gave her the energy to try and free her from her binds, but alas it was to no avail. The bonds around her wrists were tight. The men below her were the same ones that had assaulted her and it was still beyond her understanding. She could sense they were Faunus, but under the heavy atmosphere of the air, something about the three of them made Blake believe something was definitely off.

"Specifically we're looking to taste the girl in red. A life for a life; you could say we were granted a second chance by a very knowledgeable person that wants her dead."

Blake wretched in disgust at his language. Hearing it in person made her realize why her race was so direly discriminated at times. But this was far worse, far darker. First of all, who would ask for the death of Ruby? Secondly, why of all places did these men pick these ruins to entomb them?

"If only we could see the moon from here." The man began to stroll across the craggy floor as he waltzed onto a different topic. "Have you ever wondered, Blake Belladonna, why the moon is partially demolished?"

It was a topic many philosophers were merely theorising. There were certain popular theories, but there was one that stuck out to Blake quite a lot. "Dust may have come from the moon."

The man raised an eyebrow. "You're a smart one." He gave a slow clap in sarcasm. "Dust comes in a variety of colours and forms, they are conduits to power. Use them and you will obtain that power. However, there is one special shard of Dust that is so powerful that it has the potential to extract your soul."

"That's not possible." Blake disagreed. The power of dust was fleeting. It could be used to craft small explosions and eddies of wind.

"Oh but it is quite real. It comes from the core of the moon itself and is right here in front of me."

Blake recognised the glowing white orb in front of him. It was the same one that she ran into before she was attacked by these men. She only assumed it was regular Dust. That being said, it did have a mysterious multi-hued glow.

"Many years ago, we dug up this object. Not by our own will of course, by the force of one man and his terrible company. At first we hated it. It was the death of us."

The last sentence creeped Blake out. "_The death of you_?"

"We worked for the Schnee Dust corporation. You heard about the slavery that the Faunus had endured during our endless years of discrimination. This very place was the place of the excavation, we were to find the most powerful source of Dust that had come from the moon in order to provide a near infinite supply to the corporation. Imagine if a company controlled something that powerful, they would have the world at their knees.

However, they were foolish. When we finally dug it up and touched it with out hands, our bodies were sapped dry. We lost our way. Any humans that touched it merely died. The Faunus however..."

Blake could only witness in horror as her eyes began to trick her like some cruel joke. With a blink of an eye; the three men of the room were replaced with giant black lizards wearing masks. Grimm.


	4. The Greatest Sacrifice

The speeding yellow beast roared. Its engines growled as it was forced to stop in the yellowed grass below its treads. Mounted upon it was Yang, her hands firmly clutched its handlebars. The Bumblebee, what her motorcycle was known as, had endured a great burden in order to get to this place as quickly as possible. There was still some paces to go it would seem.

Yang was no doubt familiar with this territory. She had undertook operations as recently as a couple of years back before she was finally accepted into the Beacon academy. She had once worked with a private organisation that acted as a middleman between the Schnee Dust Corporation's workings in the forest and more predominantly, the mine. Actually, it was not much of a mine to begin with. Before that it was the ruins to an ancient Faunus tribe.

But she had not hit the ruins yet. She could only assume that Pyrrah, Blake and Ruby would be found there as well as the boy that Yang became increasingly concerned about. She had stopped the Bumblebee in front of an old burnt down house. This was an area of the forest a bit further west of the ruins; a place Blake had missed while being hunted by Pendragons. In its former life; the house was once a proud two story abode for a small family. Now, it was no more than flame bitten wood and cement. Whatever had brought this place down had happened years ago. It was sad. Evidence of furniture gave an insight onto how each room would have been. Yang shook her head and frowned.

Rather than tarry on the subject further, she put her foot down and kicked the pedal causing her metal steed to roar back into life. With a spark of flame from the exhaust pipe; Yang sped off on the rough grassy terrain through the trees to put an end to her haunting.

–

**_Atrocious monsters_**. Blake wretched at the thought of Faunus being the same vein as Grimm; in fact, she couldn't believe it, even with the downright feral behavior the White Fang had wrought in her past. But that right now was not the concern. The central Pendragon, the alpha of the three lunged for her. But she was still bound, unable to reach her weapon.

It was then with a clink, some might of force had caused her to break loose of one of the metal binds. _"What?"_ Before she was given the chance to properly react, her entire body swung down partway like the dial on a clock becoming heavy and limp. Fortunately, by whatever manner of luck the Pendragon did not expect this outcome and tackled into the wall, causing the facing to crumble. The loosening of the debris broke her other bind, and she was free.

Landing gracefully like a cat, Blake made contact with the ground unharmed. Her wrists still cramped a bit, but at least now she was able to reach for the Gambol Shroud still attached to her back.

Not fast enough. There were still two other Pendragons on her tail while the first still suffered from recoil. Both blocked her escape. No way out.

Blake had also miscalculated why she had been loosened from one of her bonds as well. In the distance Pyrrah Nikos had fired the first shot with her rifle making acute use of the scope. "One advantage over the Crescent Rose is that it's ultra silent." She smiled as she still knelt in the crouched position with her gun loaded. She watched as Ruby next to her held out her Crescent Rose, that was folded into a large two handed gun, also eager to dig in on the action.

"Alright then." Pyrrah concluded. "I'll let you have some of the fun now that Blake is actually free. Just... uh be careful not to blow up our friend right?"

Ruby smiled and nodded as she loaded the Crescent Rose with ammunition attached to her belt. It took one switch of the trigger to let go one vast bullet of fire that crashed into one of the devils. It also took one after image from Blake's Semblance to shadow step out the way of harm. No longer was she trapped from escape by a wall.

Uther watched from a distance. Down below, Blake looked like a small black figure in brown craggy arena as she faced up against three bigger dots. But despite Pyrrah and Rubys excellent teamwork from afar, he felt extremely unsettled. _"Both Ruby and Pyrrah are so good at fighting... but what can I do?" _It was then his focus became entranced on something else on the field that made him ignore Pyrrah's exchange with Ruby.

"Are you ready to jump in?" Pyrrah asked standing up.

Ruby gulped and nodded. "Well we gotta."

With a leap, they landed on the terrain below. In reality, the ledge they were on wasn't far from the ground. Ruby nearly slipped on a rusty pickaxe upon landing though.

Letting the panic slide, another concern rushed to her mind. Blake was running towards her of all people, with a Grimm chasing behind her. Pyrrah merely squinted and observed the situation. Ruby had to act fast. Real fast.

Ruby stupidly decided to run in Blakes direction, both were about to collide. Somehow, Blake could see what was going on in the poor girls mind as the red-head tossed the black ribbon towards her. A Pendragon charged from the left, obscuring Blake from view but the Faunus had successfully grabbed the ribbon and performed a clean backflip. Ruby wasn't sure how, but when the Pendragonhad passed over and crashed into the wall, she could see Blake had landed on her feet with the Ribbon already neatly tied to her head. An epic feat.

Ruby ceased to a halt and shrugged before whispering _"She's probably used to doing stunts like that at Beacon."_

Pyrrah placed a finger on her chin in thought. "I didn't know she wore two ribbons!"

Ruby decided not to comment. In fact, there was no time to comment anyway. Three Grimm, Three heroines. The girls collected and stood in a back to back formation to ensure they wouldn't be ambushed.

"One each?" Blake asked remaining her focus on one of the smaller Grimm.

"Ruby, you want the biggest one?" Pyrrah asked.

"He's mine." Ruby unfurled her gun into a red sweeping scythe of death. Its pointed blade lured the charging monster to its death. All three girls charged and engaged with their enemies, using their varying skills to make work of them.

Blake drew first blood with the Gambol Shroud. Folding the Rapier into a gun sickle, it made a wild swing and shot off stones from the creatures back. The snapped dust shardlings crashed to the ground. In all the damage inflicted had been minimal.

Pyrrah meanwhile had converted her rifle amazingly into some kind of spear. Combined with a shield that was now locked on her free arm it allowed her to engage in direct combat blocking heavy attacks that came her way.

Ruby was faced with the biggest challenge. An endless barrage of bullets from the head of her scythe did little to the largest one. In fact, none of the shots she fired seemed to do anything. While Pyrrah seemed to succeed better with her opponent, Blake's projectile attacks served little use either. Ruby made use of her agility and stepped in the beasts shadow. Scythe held outward, she went for the crush and tried to pierce its black body. Failure. Whatever it was made of was still tough as nails, she inflicted nothing more than a moderate scratch.

Uther just watched as the girls fought. Information began to fill his mind bit by bit as he stared into the white orb they fought in distance of. It was almost like the orb was telling him what was there... no... he knew all along. Images of torture and slavery that had occurred in this room entered his mind.

Death.

Murder.

Slavery.

He was almost certain that the role of this place was prominent in his past. The images he saw were people he recognized. His brothers. His mother. His father. He began to feel cold. He no longer felt alive.

He dropped to his knees when he saw one last image.

_His own death._

It couldn't have been real, could it? The orb was telling him lies. But the more he looked, the more he couldn't look away. He was bound, entranced by its strange invisible wrappings around him. He shut his eyes hoping the horrid dream would go away, but it was still there as bright as day.

Pyrrah had already made light work of her part of the fight. The enemy Grimm was battered and exhausted and lay in a heap in front of her. She wondered why Blake and Ruby hadn't finished yet. "Hey, I think I just realized something!"

Grabbing a white shard of Dust that had smashed off the creatures back, she held it up. "These creatures are covered in Dust that has had its powers sucked dry, which makes me believe that any type of Dust attacks are ineffectual on these Grimm!"

Being creatures that were usually weak to Dust, the fact that such attacks couldn't be used was a blasphemy in all kinds of Hunters and Huntresses everywhere fighting Grimm. Fighting. There would be more fighting.

–

"I can't believe this! Those girls always make me worry!" Weiss marched through the forest, her eyes locked on the line of fallen grass. She seemed to completely ignore the presence of Jaune who was stumbling behind her. For whatever reason he had ended up following her all the way out to the Fabled Forest.

"Hey Weiss, could you just calm down a bit?" he stuttered waving his hands poking his head around her shoulders trying to get her attention.

It was a failure. The girl in white continued to look forth until she stopped at a pile of ruins. "Yang passed by here." She looked up at the remains of it wondering how the building fell.

"I wonder what happened here." Jaune thought out openly, still vying for Weiss's attention.

"I don't know. It's old." Weiss gave him some kind of crude response at least. _"But it doesn't make sense why a house like this would be out in the middle of nowhere... ...I'm thinking on things too much. I've got to find Yang and the others."_Deep down, she really did care for her friends, but she had difficulty putting it into words.

The hand of Jaune waved in her face. "Hellooooo anyone in there?"

She had only just realized she had been lost in thought.

"Ah great! You zoned out there Weiss." Jaune was thankful that she was alright. "Something on your mind?"

Weiss turned her head away from him and folded her arms. "Nothing. We need to move on."

–

Yang arrived too late to the ruins. Despite the gift of speed her Motorcycle granted her she was not able to avoid the nearing presence of two fighter jets nearby. They flew low over the Fabled Forest and headed in the direction that she had hoped they didn't go. They were a familiar model, the same carrier that had been sliced in two by Penny's blades during their search for Blake in a previous adventure. These jets belonged to Roman Torchwick and his men of the White Fang.

Much like Yang, they were well aware of the location and the hidden ruins below it. The doors on the sides of the planes hung open and soldiers dressed in black and white hung knelt and poised to descend to the ground.

It was then a third ship steered into view. This one was more or less the same as the others, but with the addition of a large barrel attached to base of it. It pointed downwards to the ground, seeking the ground of its target.

"What are they doing?" Yang questioned as she squinted. She didn't get too close into view so she wouldn't give away her cover, being caught by them whilst being greatly outnumbered would serve as a colossal disadvantage to her cause.

She could fight, but not at 100% form as the effects of her ailments. She choked and coughed, clinging to a tree that was in even less health than herself. When her throat cleared of irritation she exerted her focus into watching the ships.

"Ruby and Pyrrah are in trouble, if I don't do something..." Her hand fisted the the poor tree, making it loosen even more of its dying leaves to the ground.

Suddenly, there was a small light that ripped through the atmosphere. In seconds, the sky was completely white. Weiss and Jaune were engulfed. The ships were taken. Ruby too saw the glint in the roof of the cave. "What is that...?"

She had been silenced by what followed.

A beam of coloured light from the cannon burrowed its way into the hill above the ruins boring a hole directly into the large cavern where Ruby and her friends were fighting. The girls and even the Pendragons had to dodge out the way of the third enemy.

Scuffling her shoes in the dirt, Ruby used her Scythe to maintain her balance from the blast and squinted at the light. It began to peter and clear noticing a huge hole that had revealed itself to them.

While the poor beasts around them had become lifeless lumps from the shock Pyrrah used her time to investigate the newly created hole. She temporarily drew her weapon and placed her hands on her hips as she carefully observed. "It's man made destruction!"

Roped dropped down from the sides of the hole and within moments, soldiers in white tunics swarmed the area like insects.

Blake recognized them instantly. "Members of the White Fang. But what are they doing here!?"

–

The soldiers were feeding through the main entrance of the ruins as well. Whatever was in there must have been pretty important for them to send an entire force of men, let alone a cannon to rip an opening into the place. Yang edged closer and watched as the last group of men wondered in. "There has to be some way to get inside..."

"Waaaaitt for meeee!" One of the straggling White Fang soldiers was still far away from the rest of the group. The poor guy didn't even have his pants on properly; his shirt hung over in a ragtag mess.

Yang had an epiphany. "I've got it!"

–

Pyrrah leapt up to the upper balcony of the cave, but her entrance had been blocked by more soldiers. "Twenty or so here, fourty from the roof. We're outnumbered!"

"No we're not!" Ruby shouted from below. "We can beat them!"

Pyrrah was proud of the girls perseverance. The young Gladiator drew spear and shield, ready to confront the attackers and to protect Uther who was nearby. The poor boy was quite visibly shaken.

One of the White Fang grunts stepped forward. "Seize them!"

"Ugh," Blake groaned as her ears underneath her bow flicked back. "Do we ever get peace?" She launched herself at some of the men carrying swords in their hands. With a twist of her arm she let loose her chain sickle. Her face darkened remembering that she was in league with such people. One sweep of the black ribbon was enough to trip them onto the ground. The ribbon cracked as it hit the floor like a whip and returned to Blake's hand.

Ruby fought hard against her foes. But her strikes with her scythe slowed as she became distracted by the presence of the Pendragons waking back up. Above her a large shadow already cast itself. She rolled forwards between the two White Fang and the poor men had to stop to figure out her small being had just slipped through between them. "Where did she...?"

The second grunt poked the first grunt as he looked up. "Uh..."

The pair were shortly silenced after being landed on by a Grimm. Fortunately for them, it was the smaller of Pendragons.

Not all the White Fang however were buffoons in combat. Pyrrah clashed with several more experienced fighters, reaching a stalemate with her spear at points. As she mowed through the advancing soldiers, one behind her caught her eye. He, or rather she wore the uniform much like the others, but underneath the helmet flowed long reams of golden hair. She was at the back of the group and as soon as she met contact with Pyrrah she gave a sly grin.

There was a clicking noise, like a gun being loaded and almost instantaneously, a set of mercenaries in front of the female grunt fell forwards on top of each other like dominoes. The girl had yellow gauntlets folded over her arms that clicked as the shells around the wrist let loose the already used clips.

"The Ember Cecelia! Yang!?" Pyrrah immediately identified the weapon the grunt carried.

Yang lifted up the visor to reveal her face underneath. Her lavender eyes glittered back. She flipped the visor back down again as if they were a replacement for her sunglasses and prepared to power through the rest of the mercenaries that blocked the entrance.

The sound of a megaphone interrupted their fight however.

"**Drop all your weapons now and cease this fighting. _All of you._" **

The men began to quiver and immediately did as they were asked. The heroines didn't however, they where still trying to figure out who the voice belonged to. It was a female. None they recognized.

Ruby gasped. "Even the Grimm have stopped fighting."

The back monsters cowered back. They either were deathly frightened of this woman or that she had some kind of influence over them. Either way, they could see a platform from above being winched down into sight. It was impossible to make the woman out by the dark shadow that hung over her, but her eyes shined like a dire wolf on a moonlit night. Ruby could make out flecks of a mid length dress. On her left arm she held a massive grey object that seemed to be attached firmly. It didn't have a conventional design like Hunter weapons of current times.

The woman resumed her speech. "It was a simple operation. You already failed miserably both Grimm and Faunus alike, rotten creatures. We needed only one soul."

Yang stepped forward and leapt down alongside Blake and Ruby. Her little sister recognized her right away. "What are you doing here?"

"I should have been here long ago."

Ruby then wretched and held her nose. "Yang. That costume smells."

"That's not important!" The eldest sister clenched her fist, nearly spiraling into a rage.

Their tame banter was halted by the presence of the new enemy. Or not so new to Ruby at least. She recognised the woman from the moment Glynda Goodwitch saved her life. This woman in red had a crushing aura around her, and Red Riding Hood had ideas on just how capable she was with dust. Compared to the soldiers that worked for her or even the Pendragons, she was a deadly adversary.

"We needed one more soul to charge the Moon Stone. Just one more. Are you so incapable?" The woman with the fiery eyes continued. The platform hoisted her down until it touched the ground.

Yang grew furious. Her hair sparked with fire. This was the same woman she had once worked for. The same woman of which she had seen commit horrific deeds. The same woman that made her commit horrific deeds. She inched forward. Goldilocks had a score to settle with Cinderella.

Yang grit her teeth and clenched her fists. She dashed forward and surged to inflict a punch. In a flash, she was in close range with 'Cinder'. She launched punch after punch after punch without thinking straight and allowed her rage to be vented through each and every attack. Every single time, her Ember Celica's made contact with something that was not Cinder's own body.

Whatever was on Cinder's arm, the gargantuan grey contraption with a hollow recess was now being used as a shield that protected the anti-huntress from harm. "What's this?" Cinder whispered to Yang. "You're not on top form today are you?"

Yang's body was still under stress from her sickness. It had not even been a day since she'd been allowed to recover and Cinder did not even need to retaliate to make her fall. Yang quickly slumped down on the ground in front of her enemy realizing her mistake. The embers in her hair died out once again like a candle flame that had been snuffed.

Cinder stepped away from Yang for a moment and turned her back towards the large orb of Dust or 'Moon Stone'. "That's right, beg for mercy like the dogs you are."

"Yang no!" Ruby charged, but Pendragons and White Fang got in the way. The monsters and Faunus really were working together... somehow.

"That device on her arm is reacting with that stone!" Pyrrah had recognized that it had been Cinder's goal all along.

Whatever the metal thing was on Cinder now had the Moon Stone in its recess. The ugly shield/gauntlet then converted into a type of cannon which Cinder turned around and pointed like a toy. "It is still severely lacking in power, but one more soul should do it." The gun was aimed at Yang's lifeless body.

"Sister!" Ruby cried out as she tried to struggle between the hands of the men that tried to resist her passage. Blake saw her cry of pain and tried to rush in from the side, only to be halted by the largest Pendragon.

"_You guys really are hopeless without me aren't you?"_

"That voice..." Ruby instantly recognized it.

The air froze in a beam of ice that struck the Alpha Grimm as its target. His head froze solid, much like the technique used by Weiss on the King Taijitsu earlier. No doubt it was her.

She danced through the air, using her glyphs to guide her above and over the enemy. Using the opportunity, the Cat Faunus used her Gambol Shroud to smack the head of the Pendragon clean off much like the technique she had earlier witnessed. She shrugged as the monsters body collapsed to the ground. "Hey that really does work."

Blake and Pyrrah joined with Ruby to push back the forces. Cinder was distracted by the presence of the new gatecrashers, Jaune was there as well. He would have consoled Uther on the top of the ledge whilst the girls were all fighting, but the boy was nowhere to be seen. It was never a concern to Jaune due to the fact that he didn't make acquaintances with him before.

"I'll feed all five of you to my jewel!" Cinder threatened pointing the cannon at Ruby.

The girl moved so fast that she made for a difficult target.

"You leave my god-damn sister alone... YOU HEAR ME?" Cinder's own imposing aura was being blanked out by the girl who had fallen trying to attack her. Through the draped hair over Yang's face she could see the glow of red in her eyes.

"Hmph. And what could you possibly do? Stay on the ground. You belong there. Or would you like me to put you a few feet under?"

Despite her threats Cinder seemed pretty dead set on taking the life of Ruby, above anyone. She had a long lasting grudge with her mother. The child was no different. She behaved as a reflection, even an incarnation of that same person. It was time to let loose the ancient weapon.

"Now hear the roar of the Lunar Eclipse!" she cried firing the weapon for the first time. It took a while to get going, but once the charge was set up it unleashed a beam of coloured light that skirted across the room tearing down the walls and decimating the ground beneath them.

Cinder was still disappointed however. "It is not as strong as the notes said it was. I'm still lacking the soul of innocence. One accurate shot will be enough."

After mopping up most of the foes on the floor, team RWBY and half JNPR had to focus on keeping out the way of their adversaries shots. One false move and they would all be fatally wounded or worse.

Ruby made the charge to save her older sister. "I'll stop you!"

Cinder was aware of the girls speed, but couldn't react fast enough to it. She had a chance to fire one more shot and hope it hit its mark.

"Ruby, watch out!" Pyrrah cried reaching out her hand.

It was too late. There was a flash of white that had engulfed the girl and she fell to the ground. The group were about to scream, but one member was lacking. It wasn't Yang. Ruby was surprised she was still conscious. She looked up, but her sight of Cinder was blocked by a set of Bronze armour and red hair.

They couldn't believe their eyes.

The first one to shout was Jaune. "PYRRAH!"

Weiss was flabbergasted "You idiot...!"

Whatever had just happened, the Gladiator had saved Ruby's life. As the girl in red looked up im a crouched position with her hands over her head, she saw Pyrrah look slowly back before whispering something that her ears couldn't pick up. Within moments, her body fell to the ground and Jaune and the girls rushed to her side. The blonde haired man was there first, his wimpy face had turned into something more sorrowful and sad. He embraced her in her arms, something he had previously had little courage to do. His emotions overflowed into tears. He clutched her hands with his own, hoping his warm body would wake her. "Pyrrah... talk to me. It's your old pal Jaune..." His words did not wake her. The cries of RWBY did not wake her.

Weiss and Blake stood above them unsettled and disturbed. "Did she really take her soul?"

"Why did she just do that!?" Ruby was confused. Watching Jaune trying to awaken Pyrrah with no success what making her brim with tears as well.

"She did what any one of us would have done!" Weiss retorted.

In a matter to secure safety, Blake checked for Cinder. She had already begun to depart from the ruins, taking the Moon Stone with her. But now, the stone had changed from white to blood red. "This source of life shall do for a little while, but mark my words, I'll return to get you Ruby Rose!"

–

"Why me? What do people want with me?" No matter which way she turned, tragedy always seemed to follow Ruby.

Jaune had carried an unconscious Pyrrah out of the ruins and with the help of Yang and Blake, put her on the back of the motorcycle.

Weiss had defrosted a little under the heavy atmosphere. "You know Ruby, you're not so different from the rest of us."

"How so?"

"Back at home, my father made me the center of attention with everything. You would think that performances, fame and good grades would be the best of lifestyles right? Well with it bring a lot of enemies. I've been hounded by the burdens of my heritage and my own father for as long as I can remember. Signing up for Beacon was a way I'd hoped I would have gotten away from it but as luck would have it, my past always comes back to haunt me."

Ruby could kind of understand what Weiss was trying to say. For every tragedy she had suffered there was always another who had been through the same thing, or more. But even that being said, the heavy feeling of loss had been felt today by everyone.

She only hoped that there was some kind of impossible salvation waiting for her.


	5. You Have My Attention

In the highest tower of Beacon Academy, Professor Ozpin sat at his desk under the light of the moon from his window. He worked late into the night, not checking academy things, those had been taken care of earlier. To be honest, nobody really knew what he got up at hours this late but it appeared he was reading a book. It was dusty and text heavy and in his free palm he held a shard of white dust. He became distant from his studies and began to look at the moon through the window almost if he could sense something was awry in the air.

A knock at the door disrupted him from his daydream and he grabbed ahold of his walking stick. Edging to the door, he opened it and with a creak he could see the face of a less than amused blonde at the door. Her hair was curly and tied back and on her head rested rectangular spectacles like Ozpin's own.

"Gynda Goodw-"

"Ozpin." Glynda forcefully interrupted. She seemed less than amused to still be up so late at night with work to prepare for tomorrow and even less than pleased by the fact that the headmaster of Beacon was not resting his bones either. "Six students at the Beacon Academy have broken curfew and are missing from the premises." She tried to push herself into the room, but the Professor halted her, as if he were trying to hide away his book collection.

The man raised an eyebrow "Have you figured out who?" He could already take guesses on who some of them might be.

"Two students from JNPR, Jaune Arc and Pyrrah Nikos. All four members of RWBY. Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long. Shall I send the disciplinary team out to go fetch them?" She seemed eager to slap them all with a punishment for breaking the school rules.

Ozpin swept his head. "No. There shall be none of that. They will return in due time."

"Ozpin..." The female tutor seemed irritated at his lack of formality over the school. "We are one of the most prestigious Academies in Vale. We should _not _be passing exceptions to _any_ rule breakers and set an example."

"My decision is final." Ozpin retorted. And when he had decided something, nothing could change that. Not even Glynda. She nodded frustratingly wondering why such a strange man had gotten into a position ahead of her before remembering why he interested her so much. Ozpin promptly pushed past the woman as he headed towards an undetermined location.

* * *

During his passage back to Beacon, Jaune kept Pyrrah close to him in his arms. He had extracted her from Yang's motorcycle now being no more than 20 minute from Beacon. Yang, who was now thankfully in her usual attire and not the white fang uniform, still didn't understand Jaune's intentions. "Jaune... if you had kept her on the motorcycle we would have made it by now."

Jaune seemed awfully quiet. He was trying to patch together the difference between sorrow and rational thinking in his mind. Pyrrah's body was cold and lifeless in his arms, she had still not awakened at the calls of her friends.

Ruby hung to the back of the party with Weiss, trying to catch up with the snowflake's quick paced movement through the natural landscape. _"_Do you think she'll ever wake up?" Ruby tried to keep her voice down to keep her sensitive discussion out of Jaune's ears.

"That I don't really know." Weiss replied in a mimicking, quiet tone. She too seemed honestly concerned for Pyrrah's well-being. "She hasn't got any visable external damage to her body... so it shouldn't be too serious. Give her some time."

Ruby groaned. "I should probably change the subject. Do you know what happened to Uther?"

Weiss rolled up one hand and pointed behind herself. "Turns out that little scamp can't find his own way home now after all. He's trailing along behind Blake. Hopefully we can meet with Ozpin and find out what to do with him."

Ruby followed Weiss's direction and as true as The Book she saw Blake walking close by Uther. He eyes seemed trained on the boy's very being as if she had lost herself in her own little world. "Uther," The fellow Faunus in black spoke out.

"Huh?" The boy replied.

"Are you-"

"HEY BLAKE!" Ruby interjected abruptly.

Blake tried to plug one of her ears, but having three more open and listening didn't exactly help things. "What...?" She seemed fairly annoyed that her ears had been blasted out by noise.

"Beacon is just beyond this road. We should go find Professor Ozpin and see if he can do anything to help."

Blake seemed hesitant. "Is that really a good idea...?"

Yang nudged into the conversation. "Well what else can we do? We can't have him hang around the school. I thinking going to Ozpin would be the right choice."

"You have my attention."

A voice that was not their own echoed from the gateway of Beacon. There, standing alone was a man and his walking stick. He was fairly aged but had a sprightly short white hair in a style that teemed of youth. His clothing was an oak green shirt and fir tree green overalls. The girls and Jaune immediately recognised the man that had decided to stand alone and waited for them at the entrance of the school.

"Professor Ozpin...!" Ruby spoke aloud. There was no use of them trying to hide their presence as the man stared directly at her of all people as if he predicted her return.

"The headmaster," Yang clenched her teeth feeling apprehension. She didn't know what the man was thinking. He neither smiled or frowned, that was just how he was.

Jaune was the most timid to step forwards as he carried the lifeless body of his partner. Ozpin's brow raised when he saw one of his own skilled students incapacitated. Rather than be allowed to speak, Ruby continously threw out excuses. "We can explain why we were away, p-please don't punish us...!"

* * *

Ruby had been isolated in the corridor alone. She leaned back in the dark hall with one foot on the wall wondering how much longer the night would last. With a moment to think she tried to reflect back on the tragedy and enigma surrounding the events of the last few hours. The woman with the flaming eyes and shoes of glass. There was no doubt she had seen that woman on the Air Jet before she was granted access to the Beacon Academy. She didn't know the woman, but the woman seemed to know _her_. And she wanted Ruby dead. Why she didn't quite understand, but because of it Pyrrah had risked her life.

"_Anyone of us would have done it, stupid."_

Ruby remembered the harsh glare Weiss exchanged with her before she headed back to the teams dorm. Her team mates and JNPR really were looking out for her.

Footsteps. Ruby's trace of thought was interrupted by the approach of the professor in the distance. She was still nervous by his advance, still unsure of what he planned to discuss with her. Within moments, he was at the door of his office. He gave a passive glance to the girl. "I had to make sure your friend Pyrrah Nikos was sent to the ward for examinations. It could be some time before we turn up any results of her condition."

"What about my other friends?"

"Your team members are fine. They've all been instructed to get rest at their assigned dorms and the little boy you brought with you is under the care of Glynda temporarily. When our discussion is done I will see if I can get into contact with any relations for him. Shall we get started?"

Ozpin opened the door of his room. It creaked; the door rarely got use or was properly oiled, probably due to people trying to keep out of Ozpin's business. Whatever lay inside was exceptionally personal to him and for some reason him allowing Ruby to enter offered her some kind of odd welcome. But the welcoming feeling that came over her was a short one, remembering how unpredictable and how eccentric the man could be.

The room was moderately sized. The walls were hidden with bookcases choked in literature of various fiction and non fiction. A large globe of Remnant aged and brown took its stand by the single large window that let in the moon light. Asides that, a desk in the center of the room cluttered with paper and even more books served as Ozpin's main place of work.

"Go on, take a seat." Ozpin offered Ruby a chair. One of the only other chairs in the room even. It was small and plain, and paled in comparison to the much more comfortable green velvet one he had. Such a petty thing was the least of her worries though.

"So, when we're settled, I'd like to clarify a few things you've told me so far."

"Uh-huh." Ruby gulped.

"You crossed into an incredibly dangerous zone where you found and engaged members of the White Fang and various Grimm."

"Well, Blake was first to head out there actually. She was escorting that boy home."

"Uther?" Ozpin questioned. "It makes me wonder how Blake got so sidetracked into finding that place when her intentions were elsewhere."

"She was attacked by monsters."

"She was. But not by regular Grimm. That must have crossed your mind right?" Ozpin continued to bombard Ruby with questions.

"Of course it did!" Ruby began to grow frustrated with how quickly he was asking things and her brows narrowed.

Ozpin noticed her change of mood and decided to lay off some of the pressure. "Those Grimm are called Pendragons. Only five of them exist in the world. It's sort of strange how you came across three of them as I was looking into the creatures."

Ruby had noticed a book on the table that was open that did seem to depict a crudely drawn version of the Pendragon Grimm. Unlike the other books, it was in relatively new condition.

Ozpin pointed at the image she looked at. "The ruins are centuries older than the monsters that lived in them. A Faunus tribe that worshipped the moon created the first half of it. That was until about 20 years ago..."

"What happened then?"

"The Schnee Corporation found out that the Faunus in there had caught on to something. An infinite supply of Dust. I've been theorising for some time now that most of the dust we use today comes from the moon. This infinite supply, or 'Moon Stone' would grant the company an infinite supply it could offer to the consumer. All they needed to do was to find it." Ozpin closed up the book cover, revealing the white cover and printed front that read "Schnee Dust Corpororation." The book had been written by someone employed by them.

"That sounds like a pretty amazing thing. Having an infinite supply of ammunition on my Crescent Rose would allow me to modify it in such a way I'd never need to reload it again."

Ozpin shook his head. "No supply is infinite. Blood for blood. Equivalent exchange."

"This isn't science class." Ruby pouted.

"My point is, don't trust what's written on paper. Believe what you see with your own eyes." He slid the book aside as if it was an obsolete piece of trash. "Now, I would like to know what you saw with your own eyes."

The man genuinely put her trust into the girl. She decided to respect that honour. "When we found out that Blake hadn't returned on time, we went looking for her. At first it was just me and Pyrrah, but then everyone else showed up. Without warning, we were ambushed by White Fang and one of the members got away with the Moonstone. She carried a huge grey metallic weapon."

"A metallic weapon?"

"The moonstone sorta just attached to it like a glove. It wasn't conventional like how I made my scythe or how other students made their own weapons. It was like it was from another time."

"Did it by chance resemble a claw that could convert itself to a shield?" Ozpin seemed pretty knowledgeable about it.

Ruby nearly leapt up from her chair. "Yeah that was it!"

"That weapon is a black sheep. It was supposed to have been incinerated long ago, but none had the technology to do so. Even submerging it in magma turned up no results. However it was made was by no conventional means." Ozpin tipped his glasses "As your headmaster I need to stay on top of every weapon out there so I can pass on my knowledge of how you can defend against it. When equipped with the Moon Stone it allegedly has the power to sap souls. I believe that's what powers the rocks infinite Dust supply."

Ruby slumped back down into the chair and imagined how Pyrrah was being poked and prodded by the men trying to revive her. "Is it possible she lost her soul?"

"Her body is perfectly intact but she remains unconscious to this very moment. For now she is being assisted on life support but with no signs of external or internal injury we can only begin assuming such radical things. I kind of wish the medical team would actually agree with me on that last point though." Ozpin shrugged.

"So she'll be okay?" Ruby asked modestly.

"For the time being, yes." Ozpin seemed to leave the conversation on a tangent before steering away from the subject. "I think we'll end discussion here for now. Speaking with you after such a while was interesting to say the least. But you should do your best to stay out of trouble, it would seem to me you're pretty keen on running into it."

* * *

Upon return to the dorm, Ruby could still hear voices coming from JNPR's room. Nora and Ren still couldn't quite sink in with the news at the loss of their partner and Jaune was in no better mood. Thinking about the mental images of their sorrow just made her heart sink. _Why wasn't it me?_

As she opened the door of her dorm, she was greeted by the silence of two girls sleeping, one snoring. That one was Yang. Ruby hoped to get to sleep as quickly as possible in the small hope that when she would wake up, everything would be normal again. Despite having a lot of worries on her mind, she fell asleep like a log. She had remained awake long into the night and the early hours of morning and after a lot of training and fighting, she had not taken note of her own fatigue.

That night she dreamed. There was a house in a forest of green. She stood alone in the clearing and looked up at the wooden building. She could hear the clatter of a family inside going about their day. It had been so long since Ruby had lived a life such as that. A loving father and mother to take care of her, a warm home to live in, with no threat of creatures attacking. Such a reality was only befitting of a dream.

He eyes awoke to equally bright sunlight. The somewhat pleasant dream had washed away some of her worries. Yang poked her head over the top bunk where Ruby lay and her wide lavender eyes expressed her excited mood. "Hey rise and shine!"

A new day was upon them. As Ruby still tried to knock out the fact she had slept for so few hours and was still exhausted trying to wake her brain up. Yang at least was filled with a lot more energy. "Good to see you doing well." Ruby noticed as she yawned and stretched her arms.

"Well, I took a trip to the medical ward myself and was given a few extra antibiotics. If I keep taking them for a few days, it should kick back the sickness I have for the most part. The worst of it is mostly over for now."

"Is Pyrrah still...?"

Yang hopped off of Ruby's bunk side onto the ground. She looked away and flung her arms loose. "I asked this morning. She's still in exactly the same state she was as last night."

"Are you serious?" Ruby still couldn't quite register the fact that Pyrrah hadn't recovered.

"Serious. None of JNPR have left their room since this morning either."

Ruby lowered the volume of her voice to a near whisper "If anything, they were hit harder than we were." It was then the small girl realised. "Hey, where are..."

Weiss and Blake had already vacated the dorm early in the morning. They walked on the outer cobbles of Beacon remaining awfully quiet. Blake's eyes remained focused on the ground with her mind trailing off into the distance whilst Weiss's pale eyes remained forward.

"Hey Weiss, there's been something I've been meaning to ask you." Blake turned her head up at the Schnee.

"What's up with you?"

Blake kicked the dirt with her foot and then halted walking. "Why did you change your mind about me on that day?"

"What day."

"The day when I, you know, told you about who I was by accident." Blake meant by the time she slipped that she was a Faunus and a former member of the White Fang.

Weiss placed her hands on her hips "I changed my mind because I'm your friend. I don't care who you are or what you were affiliated with."

"I always wondered why Faunus were treated as lesser beings... and now I think I get it." Blake stared ahead.

"What are you talking about?"

"Nevermind... I didn't want to pry into petty worries."

Weiss could have retorted at the statement, but she decided not to. Blake was being unusually submissive about herself and her _very own being_. Even still, discussing such delicate affairs didn't appear to improve Black's mood.

"We have an exam tommorrow. We should be training and preparing for it, rather than tarrying on stuff that happened way back when." Weiss had a point. On top of that, some friendly exercise would allow her to expel some of the anxieties Blake had over herself.

"Come on then, let's go find some Grimm to slay. I want to make sure I outclass Ruby when it comes to tommorrow." Weiss grabbed Blake by the arm and pulled her unwillingly to a set destination. Rather than resist, Blake passively shrugged and let White pull her away.

* * *

Ruby finally built up the courage to knock on the dorm next door. It was a gentle tap, but loud enough to be heard. After some time, the door still didn't open and Ruby thought it to be best to give up and leave them alone. But just as she turned away, the door opened ajar with a creak and a pair of magenta eyes looked out at the visitor. "Ruby." The quiet male voice came from behind the door.

The girl took notice and spun around. The door opened a little further and the man at the door revealed himself to be none other than Lie Ren. "I apologise but I don't think this is good time to talk."

"Ren..." Ruby interrupted. She didn't mean to intrude on them but she wanted to make sure they were okay. "Is Jaune still in there?"

"No. In fact, he hasn't come back to the dorm all night. He wouldn't even look us in the eye."

"He's with Pyrrah..." Ruby concluded.

"I can only assume that's where he'd be, yes. Now please, hurry away. Nora is in pieces right now, and at the moment I'm the only one who can be there for her." Ren understandably shut the door in front of Ruby, blocking her out from the room. They needed privacy. To them, it was like their team member had already died and they were mourning the loss. There was no need for them to think that way. There had to be a way to help her, couldn't there?

* * *

A small isolated room of white. Robotic beeps pulsed through the room now and then, but Jaune had slept through that nuisance. Pyrrah had too. She had slept through everything with no signs of waking. He must have fallen asleep at her bedside at some point, his hand tingled as his head had rested on it, cutting the blood flow.

"Good morning Pyrrah." Jaune tried to make conversation, but it got him no answer. He had hoped by some miracle it would have availed to something, but it only left him with more doubt.

"You were... here all night?" A voice from behind him spoke.

Jaune looked behind him "Ruby?"

The short girl didn't look that imposing in the doorway, but she has a serious look on her face. "Has anything changed?"

"Not a thing. I don't know what's wrong."

"It must have been to do with that weapon, that stone. The Moon Stone."

"That's what that was?" Jaune didn't seem too interested in the details, his eyes still hung over Pyrrah. "Hey Ruby... I think I might step down as leader of JNPR."

"You can't be..." Ruby stopped when she saw his expression. He was nearly in tears.

Jaune clenched his fist and hit the bedside. "I don't think I can be that strong character she wanted me to be. Without her... I couldn't possibly find my way out of a fight."

A hand struck itself harshly across his face.

Ruby was the culprit. "That's nonsense!"

Jaune held his face that was still raw from the pain. "Why not?"

"Did all the lessons your team mates and Pyrrah gave to you mean anything? Would you discard them, just for her efforts to be in vain?"

"But..."

"No buts!" Ruby lowered her voice to her more gentle tone once again. "Listen. We will find a way to save her no matter what. But first we've got to think and co-operate." Ruby reached out her hand in offering. "I promise I'll find a way to save Pyrrah, somehow."

Jaune thought about it hesitantly. "I have to do what Pyrrah and the team want me to do." he grabbed Ruby's hand who then pulled him up.


	6. Victory is in a Simple Soul

Training began almost immediately that day. Jaune wanted to get better, he wanted to get stronger so he could find a way to save Pyrrah. Not just for her, but to upkeep the reputation of team JNPR as a whole. Ren and Nora stood close by on the same grassy terrain the team had stood on the other day when they first sparred with team RWBY. Nora seemed incredibly eustatic without a care in the world. She sat in the grass and rolled her head back and forth while leaning back against Ren who was just seated behind her. "Ohh I'm so excited to fight again!" She threw both arms into the air as she cheered gleefully. She tilted her head back so her giant eyes and huge gaping grin was witnessed by the somewhat neutral-faced Ren. "I know! We should fight in pairs this time! Then we can be together and do all these cool moves!"

Ren sighed. It was hard to believe such a drastic exchange of personalities were also joined by the hip. Even still, he enjoyed her company. Both where friends for as long as they could remember and it was set to stay that way. Ren saw Jaune and Ruby making exchanges in the background. They stood face to face in grass equipped in their usual combat gear.

"Are you really sure you want to do this?" Ruby clutched her scythe rifle which was folded into a compact and awkward looking rectangular size. She observed it nervously, the shininess of the red metal reflected her anxious look.

Jaune didn't take a moment to hesitate. "Yes. This is something I've gotta do." He clutched his sword tightly. It wasn't as special or as complicated as Ruby's insanely designed weapon but he wanted to put his faith into it. _"This is my ancestors weapon. I should be more like Ruby and try to actually be a hero for a change." _Ruby decided to respect his wishes.

"Go sis!" Yang waved and cheered in the background as Jaune and Ruby took their positions on the battlefield. Weiss merely had a book out where she was trying to scribble down more notes, presumably about her rival teams movesets and how to combat them. Blake in the meanwhile looked on observantly and quietly.

Even at this distance, Ruby could see Jaune's nerves. He never really did hold up well in a fight, even against fodder like Cardin Winchester, let alone her or a Grimm.

Nora had seemingly got bored of the build up of tension. "BEGIN!" She leapt up in the air with her arms out whilst she balanced on one leg. It was the start they needed supposedly as Ruby was already making use of her semblance to vanish at a charging Jaune in the blink of an eye.

Scythe quickly unfurling, Ruby appeared in a blast of red petals behind Jaune setting herself up for an early one hit finish. The blade swung quick and fast.

Then it clanged.

She wasn't sure how, but Jaune had managed to latch the blade against his shield. She tried wriggling the scythe away, but it was firmly locked between the rims of the shield. Clattering and trying to shuffle it free, Ruby was confused. _"How come the Crescent Rose is stuck, I can't get it off of his shield!"_

She should have realised sooner. It must have been some kind of impeccable timing, but Jaune had extended the sheath shield at _just _the right moment so that the blade of her scythe just got in a close enough proximity. The extension of the shield acted as a clamp in the rectangular spacing on the sickle part, preventing her from easily loosening it. Ruby pushed forward to try and force the shield to fold back in again, but it was entirely unbreakable like a nuclear bunker. She had to make a quick kick to bash the shield away and get her weapon free. She got lucky, Jaune's blade passed the top of her right shoulder.

"_Did he seriously just try to cripple my own Semblance?" _Ruby was adept at speed. Without it, she would have been an easy target. Jaune knew this from the start, but she never thought he would actually find a way so clever to stop her. It was unlike him.

A spot of luck perhaps. Ruby wouldn't be caught by the same strategy again. This time she swung her scythe around her body like a malevolent red tornado. There was no chance he could get in close and not remain unscathed. Jaune shouted and charged at her swinging his sword all over the place like an amateur and proceeded to continuously clash with the storm of red that Ruby had generated. The force of her swings continually knocked him back, but he got up again and carried on.

"I can't fail again!" Jaune cried as he shook off his pain. He stood up from the grass like a wounded soldier and charged again.

From the sidelines Yang seemed concerned. "He should probably stop. If he continues, he'll be bedridden worse than I was yesterday."

Blake merely stared ahead as she listened in on the woman's comment of the battle. Her eyes picked up what few did right away. Jaune seemed to... shine. It must have been his aura.

_-"That's about as ready as an undergraduate is going to be I suppose."-_

Ruby's arm stopped moving. When she realised that her arm had frozen and the motion had stopped, she was shocked to find out why. Jaune had sheathed his shield and had grabbed the crescent rose and stopped it. Blade edge side.

But the only red was that on her clothing and weapon. Jaune did not weep any blood from his body, in fact, his hands were completely intact despite remaining in contact with a razor sharp blade. He still held it. He still pushed back on it. He still didn't bleed.

Ruby didn't know how the hell he had managed such a feat without dismembering several limbs. It was the stupidest thing he could have done in a fight, lest a training one at Beacon academy and such a loss would have been enough to get the both of them expelled. But still, the wounds on his hands remained absent. In fact, all the wounds on his body had vanished. He was somehow healing himself.

It was then Ruby realised. Attacking wasn't his strong point, it was his survivability. She could only assume that his Aura or Semblance was something to do with it. Whatever it was, she couldn't be sure.

She decided to pull back her weapon and cease the assault. "Jaune, we stop now."

Ruby seemed rather strict and stern in her tone. It snapped Jaune right back into his goofy self again who wimpishly backed away like a dog.

"Ugh, that got far too dangerous." Weiss cringed as she slammed the pages of her note filled book. "Promise me you won't fight like that with me in a match Ruby."

Later that day the teams continued to engage between each other. Eventually, Nora got her way with team battles and fought against Blake and Yang. However, neither victor was known to Ruby as she had been called away back to Ozpin's office.

"Now I know it's the weekend and you should be spending that time studying and practising for tomorrow's exam, but I thought I'd bring you back here to discuss a few things I found out about Uther."

"Like what things?" Ruby seemed disinterested in the details and instead focused her attention on a mini globe that had appeared on Ozpin's desk since her last visit.

Ozpin shooed her away from the distraction. "Well, it turns out that his home was in the Fabled Forest after all. But it was destroyed by a Grimm 10 years ago."

"Wait what?" Ruby once again had her focus trained on the topic.

"That house you mentioned you passed was his home. More interestingly it confirms the connection between the Faunus, the Dust and the Grimm. They all came from the same source. "

Ruby nodded blindly in contemplation.

"I'll be blunt. He was nothing more than a trickster Pendragon all along. Professor Port has him captive right now."

"Are you serious?" Ruby slammed the table.

"You were being deceived the whole time." Ozpin dusted his hands. "Seems that he died a long time ago and became a Grimm. Nothing to be too surprised about."

Ruby slouched down and looked at the desk. "But he seemed so nice..." She twiddled her fingers together as she thought back to the time when Blake spoke with him by the gate. But that being said, Grimm were still a mysterious enemy. Many kinds had yet to be discovered, Pendragons were one of them.

Ozpin seemed unusually lively. "One thing that still begs to be answered, is why of all things, did the Pendragons only emerge when the Schnee Dust company ceased operations at the mine? Perhaps that's something you should ask your partner about."

"_Weiss..."_ Ruby whispered to herself.

"Ruby." Ozpin's two hands clasped on the top of the desk. He leaned in to make sure she could hear him. "Tommorrow you and your allies _must_ be at their best. That is something you need to promise me."

–

The conversation had ended rather abruptly that day. Ruby had learned of Uther, who had become a Pendragon 10 years ago. His home had also been destroyed as evidence of this. But what made her more curious was why or how he had become a Grimm in the first place. There was only one way she could find out.

She had to head to Professor Port's classroom. She stood outside the door. No classes were currently in session due to it being the weekend. Reaching for the door knob, she quickly discovered it had been left unlocked. Unusual for a Sunday. She entered it nervously with a creak, expecting somebody to be inside.

The room was bright. It had sensible walls of a cream brown, walls lavished in trophies of deceased Grimm. Port was a first class game hunter. However, this room was also a classroom. It had a grand staircase of oak desks looking on to the grand display where each student would have sat to engage study. Ruby had been here many times. Often the room would be used to demonstrate a new battle tactic on the Grimm. Standing at the base of the room made her small self seem more grand and imposing, but she also knew she was in a place she shouldn't be.

"_If the Faunus and Grimm are similar; then maybe that's why the human race originally feared them." _Ruby scuttled across the laminate flooring trying not to leave behind the sounds of her footsteps. "_Though to be honest, are we really that much different from them?"_

"_With people like Roman, sometimes humans are worse than any monster. I wonder if the reverse is the same?" _There was a door on the other side of the classroom that no student had ever entered. It was presumably where Professor Port had kept all his creatures. Going even close to the room she could already hear growls of the trapped beasts in cages. Amongst the noises of restless creatures, she could hear talking. Rather than jump in and intrude Ruby decided to hang back and listen.

"If that's what you are... what does that make me?"

"_No... you don't understand, I'm not trying to hurt you. At least I don't think I am."_

"I've heard quite enough. You deceived me! Grimms lack souls! You're a fiend! A devil!"

There were two familiar voices. Ruby peeked from the corner of the open door. The room was dark, but lit well enough in places for her to make out whatever was inside. It looked dead similar to the Pendragon Grimm that she had fought earlier.

A girl in a black bow looked directly into a large cage of thick iron bars in the dead center of the room. All around were other smaller cages to less imposing Grimm.

"It's Blake!" Ruby whispered the girls name.

Ruby had nearly forgotten how adept to hearing B in her team was. The girl in black glanced quickly behind her, causing Red to duck out of sight.

After the tension of being discovered loosened, Ruby contained herself and continued to listen.

"_If I tricked you, please understand that wasn't my intention. At least that's what I thought..."_

"I've heard enough! I can't trust you. I don't know what I can believe anymore." Blake fell to her knees and clutched the ground. "I wish... I just wish I could fly. Fly up and above and ignore all the problems that haunt me in this world. Above the White Fang. Above the Grimm. Above everything." Her sudden outburst lessened as she began to calm.

She took a deep breath to collect her thoughts and stood up with fierce eyes. "I just want to be free of my cage."

Ruby couldn't listen to her friend tear herself inside out much longer. She stepped into plain view at the doorway. Her short stature and body shape cast a shadow that both Uther and Blake noticed right away.

"_It's Ruby!"_ The docile Grimm called cheerfully.

Blake had suspected somebody might have eavesdropped, but of all people it had to be Ruby. She seemed almost annoyed that she had intruded in on her privacy, exchanging a harsh glare. "What are you doing here?"

"I just wondered-"

"You shouldn't _be _here." Blake scolded. "This area is off limits to all students."

"You shouldn't be here either. If either of us are seen, we could both be suspended! Didn't you unlock the door in the first place?" Ruby argued.

Blake stuttered. "So what? It's not like it matters for someone like me."

"Ugh, when did you pick up Weiss's attitude!?" Ruby quickly found her being pushed aside as Blake shoved through the door as quickly as possible. Red tried to call for her to wait up, but she was already gone.

Ruby sighed. "What crawled up her butt?" the girl noticed the presence of the Pendragon Grimm across the hall. Like a TV channel, the Grimm switched between the black form and that of a boy back and forth in quick flashes. The Grimm decided to take the guise of the boy for a while, who ran up to the bars of the cage and called out to her. "Hey! It's me!"

"Uther!" Ruby cried in relief. "I was so worried about you!"

Uther seemed somewhat shocked that she didn't back away. "Wait... you're not shunning me after everything you just saw?"

"Nope."

"But Ozpin said I was a liar. Blake too. But I'm not, I swear. I didn't know that I had already become lost 10 years ago. I couldn't confirm it until Ozpin showed me."

"Showed you what?"

"Ruby, there is more than one Moon Stone! He had another one right on his desk, hidden as an atlas globe." Uther waved his hands about. "He allowed me to remember a little of what I had forgotten. To them... they see me as some kind of devil." Uther genuinely seemed upset. The faunus boy began sobbing and sat against the sealed door of the cage that held him.

Red walked over to him, oblivious of the danger and knelt right by him. "I don't think you're a threat."

Uther pulled his head from between his legs. "You don't? After everything you were taught here at Beacon?"

"Just once, I'd like to believe there was a Grimm that existed that wasn't bad." She reached into the cage and put a hand in his hair. Despite being an illusion, as her fingers ran through his brown hair it all felt very real to her.

"You're so kind." The small boy finally had the courage to stand on his own two legs. "I think back in that place... that Moonstone showed me. Those Pendragons were once my family, unfortunately, they are just the same as other Grimm now. But I just want to return to the Fabled Forest so I can be happy!"

Without even reacting, Ruby stood up and pulled out her rectangular box, which folded into a scythe.

"What are you doing?" Uther's eyes widened as Ruby seemed to have a blank expressionless face to her.

Red held the scythe out, but then rotated it so the thin handle was parallel to the keyhole. Within a few seconds of inserting it into the lock it fell off allowing the cage door to swing open.

"Are you serious?" Uther responded. "What if you think I'm a liar like all the other Pendragons? A-and what if one of the Tutors catches you!?"

"I'm either a guillable idiot or I'm a guillable smart-girl or something." Ruby holding her scythe the wrong way and partnering it with that sentence made her seem all the more quirky than usual. "Now let's get out of here!"

Ruby's Semblance was a great boon. Her fast speed let her shoot down the corridors with Uther in her arms, keeping him out of sight of any of the teachers. Well mostly, the teachers weren't around. They were doing whatever tutors did on a Sunday.

Suddenly, her body halted as her cape got caught on something. "My red garments are trapped! My greatest weakness!" She squealed. Whoever held her down was pretty strong.

"Hey Ruby hold up!" Yang was the culprit. She had clutched her little sister by the cape, causing poor Red to be running on the ground like a mouse in a wheel.

"What's up Yang?" Ruby squeaked as she finally stopped running. Poor Uther was still dizzy from Red's incredible speed.

"Did Blake just pass you right now?" Yang asked.

"She did." Ruby nodded.

Yang placed a hand on her hip and pointed towards the exit/entrance of Beacon academy. "I don't know what's wrong with her, but she just stormed right past me without me getting a word in edgeways. Do you really think she's that bothered by last night?"

"I don't know. Maybe." Ruby grumbled.

"She needs to relax and be all calm like she usually is." Yang sighed. "Well, I better let you go. You got places to be. Remember to not overdo it, okay?"

Ruby nodded. Her sister was still there to look after her, along with her friends at Beacon and her team. Red had to let Blake realise that she wasn't on her own and to do that she needed to track her down.

–

Weiss had started shopping in Vale city alone. She had wanted to bring someone with the team with her, the first that came to mind was either Ruby or Blake but she could find neither of them around. Instead in her hands she held huge white shopping bags. Most of it was heiress-grade necessities, that being, things and trinkets beyond what even an above average student at Beacon could afford. That didn't exactly bother the salesmen she flashed her Lien cards to so she could buy whatever luxuries they had.

"Come again!" One of the cashiers grinned. He rubbed his hands together in the presence of the money and followed her out the door as if that was supposed to be enough of a draw for her to return. It was almost creepy.

Weiss didn't look back even once. She marched down the pavement with thoughts pestering through her head. _"I think I've got just about everything I need."_

Time must have flown. The sun was beginning to set behind the skyscrapers that towered over her head signalling the flag to the dusk. Through the crowds of people and workers, her eye latched onto a familiar thing that crossed the road a few paces up. _"Who's that?"_

She needed to look again. She became distracted and tried to tip toe and look over the heads of passersby to get a glimpse.

A black bow poked up in the distance. _"Is that Blake?" _She quickly asked herself. She didn't have time. She tried to wave and shout at the black shark in the sea of people. "Hey Blake! Wait up!"

The noise and clatter was enough to block even a Faunus pair of ears. The black bow seemed to ignore her call and bobbed away among the sea of heads.

Pushing past the people behind her, she marched directly across the road without using the crossing. A passing car fuelled by dust skidded and screeched as it rolled directly behind the back end of her white skirt with mere millimetres distance of impact. "I don't have time to get another scar," Weiss scolded as she turned at the invisible speeding car that had already vanished from sight. She already had one down her right eye from a past event.

Averting herself from further distraction she focused on what was ahead of her. The black bow belonging to Blake was already out of sight. Weiss couldn't give up yet, she had managed to track down the Faunus before.

"Now if I know Blake..." Weiss spied around, looking for other possible routes. "She would have taken the darkest avenue possible."

On the nail. At that second her eye caught on to the long black hair on the back of her friend's hair. No doubt it was her. She was turning into an alleyway fairly hastily.

"Blake stop!" Weiss was closer this time, there was no way that she couldn't be heard again.

Blake turned back to look and seemed almost shocked to see Weiss behind her across the way. Almost a look of fear. She turned to face forward and started to run. "Weiss don't follow me!"

Weiss pulled back uncomfortably "What's wrong with her?" She had to find out what. "Blake, wait up!...

...Carrying all these bags is going to be a pain."

Jaune had returned to the ward where Pyrrah rested. As she lay there quietly like a sleeping beauty, he walked in and waved as if she was awake. "Hey, Pyrrah, I'm back." He tried to make conversation, something he was never really that good at doing.

"So I finally did it today. I managed to draw with Ruby Rose; the leader of RWBY."

Silence.

"I wish you could have come seen what happened today..." Jaune's voice itself became muted as he realised words would still not reach her. His knees dropped at her bedside and he reached for her hand. As his mind drenched itself with sorrowful thoughts, his expression changed to something more confident and focused. "No, I can't think negatively anymore. Pyrrah! I'll save you no matter what! I've grown stronger since you pulled me off of my feet... now it's my turn to help you!"

"...Aha, …a fighting man's words,"

Jaune turned around and stood to meet...

"Professor Ozpin, what are you doing here?"

"You want to save the girls life do you?"


	7. Black, White, Bronze, Yellow

Blake shook her head as the darkness of the route covered her. "I should have never applied for Beacon. I should have stayed with the White Fang and continued to rebel." Crystal tears rolled down her face and she ducked her head to hide the evidence from nobody.

Oddly, the pathway didn't lead to absolutely nowhere. At the end of the tight path was a huge clearing. The sunset light peeping from the horizon showed itself once again and Blake observed her new surroundings.

Familiar surroundings, rather.

There was a large belt of green grass and hedging. A gate to a park invited her in. She stood there, trying to contemplate the view. "This... it was because of this place everything started to make sense."

In fear of Weiss or any of her team mates following her, she decided run to the large gates that had been shut. No problem for her. With a quick eye, she leapt over them in seconds to the other side.

The more natural landscape of the park was a more welcome change to the cramped and busy city of Vale. Here she felt more free, like she should have been from her birth. It wasn't long before she reached a stone structure that served as the centrepiece of the area. It was a gazebo with a small pond in the middle of it and at the top of the fountain was a small stone.

"For so many years, I was a victim to slavery by mankind. Nothing more than a tool in the cogworks of greedy human corporations. What's worse, is that we were only children. Me, Adam and the others."

She shut her eyes an imagined a small boy with fluffy red hair and horns. Next to him was a girl with black hair and kitten ears. That girl was her. Both were in rags and dirty from mining in a quarry. At the time she didn't worry because she had always had Adam at her side.

The small boy clenched his fist. "Don't worry Blake! One day we'll grow up and lead a great organisation. And you'll be right behind me!"

At the time, Blake was timid and quiet. She never said a word but Adam would always speak to her.

As the near-adult Blake of the real world reopened her eyes and saw again fountain in front of her. She placed her fingers on one of the many wooden beams supporting the structure and ran her fingers down it. "The White Fang ended up being no better than people. No better than even Grimm. Perhaps we were subject to the rule of humans for a reason after all. And the stone here... they used to say it was linked to the moon."

She stepped under the Gazebo and looked into the pool of running water that reflected her passive face and golden eyes. On the top was the stone, but something was off about it.

Her eyes widened a little in suspicion. "Why is the stone red?"

She hadn't touched it, but like a light switch, sky instantly turned dark. The woman could still make out what was around her thanks to the lights of the lamps still being on, but the phenomena was too real. Or perhaps it was a dream?

Blake decided to keep calm and relax. While she didn't understand what was going on, she had got the message. All around her she could already hear the growls of monsters eager to take her away. She took a deep breath as a white headed snaked suddenly lunged from the black horizon. The creatures were testing her patience.

In an instant, she reached for her Gambol Shroud and shot at the snake as it crashed into her, jaws wide. Then there was another white snake head. There were two King Taijitsu's. The two heads of the black sides of the double headed snakes joined in trying to sink their teeth into the Beacon student.

Putting her grip on the ribbon rather than the gun handle, she threw the gun around by a thread as it continued to fire, blasting the creatures with bullets. But it was not enough to subdue such huge and deadly creatures, let alone two. The jaws of a giant white snake scraped past the sleeveless side of her arm. It's tooth barely scraped across her arm, scratching it and causing a small drop of blood to run.

"We are all bound by the same thread." Blake stated as she continued to swing the ribbon in a symbolic fashion.

"But who... who where you sent by?" She landed with her feet planted on the ground searching for the snake devils, who had seemed to have retreated. Her eyes squinted as she read the air. "... the Broodmother-"

Her voice was stopped as the ground beneath her feet gave way as a snake pulled directly below her, trapping her in its jaws. Her vision had been entirely encased in jaws.

Darkness.

Her mind was a blur and a mess. She awoke, but not where she had been before. She sat on the ground, leaned up against marble ruins. The floor was made of white and black marbled checkers. The room was some kind of large ruin. Most of it was intact, save for the left bottom corner of the room which had a large chuck of wall taken out of the top corner, revealing the moon, which was back in its full glory.

As she tried to maintain her balance, she stood up. She inspected herself for injuries. From what she could see, the wounds and bruises inflicted by the Snake-Grimm were still present. "Where am I now?" She asked herself.

She wasn't alone in the room. She was accompanied by a rather aggressive growl not too far away. The highlights of the moonlight revealed a very odd looking Grimm. It was tall and slender like a Beowolf, but large like an Ursa. The devil had large fox like ears, huge bladed claws, and a long tail.

"What is-" Blake was halted when the creature vanished into black smoke.

Her ear tilted backwards as she could hear heavy breathing down her neck. The skull-face of the Grimm looked back at her with wild red eyes. As she tried to move out of the way, her legs hurled back as if they were caught in something and her body slid across the floor. As she looked to figure out the hazard, she noted that the creature had very quickly disarmed her by using its tail as a whip.

"Alright then." Blake grunted as she drew out her pistol and prepared to fire a few shots. Luckily for her, the creature seemed to just stand there. As the first bullet impacted, it penetrated the image and before she had realised it, the creature had gone like a television switched off.

Knocked down from behind. Blake didn't have a moment to trigger her semblance. She tumbled to the ground to see the Grimm had struck her from behind. Her body rolled butb she maintained some focus. Suddenly there were two Blake's; one was a dummy left behind that soon vanished into smoke. The other had warped to safety on the other side of the room. She leapt up on top of a thick ruined pedestal and observed as the creature chased her.

As she tried to point and shoot; they too split into two copies. She had already fired at the first one, which vanished from sight. The second lunged while she blocked with her cleaver blade. It was a blow for a blow.

Soaring higher up the sides of the ruined hall, she tried to look for a route to escape. The massive crack in the corner that revealed the moon seemed like the easiest option for her. "Whatever this thing is... it matches my own strikes. There's no need for me to fight it right now-"

Blake was suddenly forced back to the ground. She had leapt up, but had collided with an invisible wall blocking where freedom lies. Her body hurtled to the ground. With quick thinking, she landed on both feet unharmed. "Something is preventing my escape, trapping me here!"

Blake had been imprisoned in this creul arena and was destined to fight the beast she shared the room with. The back long-eared cat Grimm prowled slowly, waiting for the next strike.

Suddenly, a black vine hurled itself from the shadows at Blake. She in turn threw forth her ribbon and both latched and wound around each other. Black smirked. "I understand now. You are my shadow."

That cat hissed.

"I should have known before. Right down to my own Semblance." Blake seemed to do something with her hand in the shadows, but not even the moon could make out what it was.

The black cleaver flew from her hand like a giant bladed Shuriken; but it missed its mark. Blake toppled and fell forwards as the tension of her ribbon suddenly lifted. She rolled over, but her chest was then stepped on by the animals foot. She couldn't move. She could barely breathe.

She stared into the red eyes of her reflection as her reflection stared back into herself.

"If you want to take me away then do it. I'm already done with this weird world." Blake relaxed her body. Her weapons were out of reach. There was little she could do to defend herself. "I was just about ready to give up actually..."

"_Don't give up, I know you can win!"_

The room echoed with a pleading cry. It resonated through the air, as if the voice belonged to the sky. But it was also familiar.

The Tigress stopped as its ears perked up to the phenomenon. Blake's mind snapped awake to the girl's voice in the sky. "Weiss? Weiss! Is that you?"

"_Of course it's me you dork!"_

Blake kicked the monster off of her body. She couldn't quit now. She couldn't give up yet just because she wanted to. She had to be there for her friends as well. Black ducked for cover. "Weiss, where are you!?"

"_I could ask you the same! I only hear your voice around here. Just had to slaughter two King Taijtsu's."_

It was more than just a dream. Weiss was at the park that Blake was once at. Somehow she was trapped in some kind of virtual arena. "I'm at some kind of... Black and white palace. I can't escape... there's something trying to kill me in here!"She gasped as the Grimm lunged. For the life of Weiss, she couldn't figure out where her team mate had gone. Among the corpses of the dual headed snakes, she saw something glint and shine. It zapped and sparked red as if it was angry and biting.

"That snake must've swallowed it." Weiss thought aloud as she kicked it with her boot.

Like an electric zap, her leg flew backwards nearly knocking her over. Before she could get a grasp of her surroundings, she could see Blake besides her. She wasn't at the park anymore, she was in the dark black palace.

_Raawrgh!_

A roar like a tiger shot towards Weiss as the black Grimm charged for her. Her body was forced to the side by someone else, followed by a groan.

Still on the floor, Weiss looked up with her eyes fixated on her friend. A bloody wound on her chest, a mark of claws from her reflection had ripped her flesh as if real. Weiss was distraught that her friend had saved her life. "Blake... you moron!"

Blake's eyes were hidden under the shadow of the room. Her sense of hearing from Weiss's plea was blocked out by her sense of pain. She stay stood for a while, but not for long as she continued to bleed out. A leg dropped as if in mercy to her enemy. "I... couldn't let anything happen to you Weiss..."

"Don't be..."

"You have a good family Weiss. Parents. A lot of money. You have a lot to live for. Me? I think I'm spent."

"...Shut up! Stop it!" Weiss stood up and marched towards Blake, regardless of the threat of the Grimm in the room. "Do you not even listen to yourself for a moment!? Do you!?"

The black Grimm leapt out the shadows again for Weiss. Quickly with the Martynatser in hand, it was frozen temporarily in a beam of light. "QUIET. I'm talking!" Weiss cursed the creature for interrupting her pep talk with Blake.

"Look, Blake. I already get it. It doesn't take a genius to work out that all the crap about my father's company in those mines bothered you. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I don't care who you are. You know, even if it turned out you'd be the world's enemy... chances are I'd still be by your side." Weiss looked down a bit before summoning up a fierce look in her eyes and pointed at the frozen icicle behind her. "But I shall NOT allow you to be beaten by your own shadow! So get up and fight it! I know you... no we... can do it. We do this as a team!"

Weiss offered up her hand to the wounded Blake. Black's body still hurt direly all over, and she could barely stand, but the words seemed to sink. From Weiss's perspective she couldn't tell. White caught sight of a golden eye beneath the black bangs. A hand wrapped in black ribbon rose and met with her own hand. "Let's do it then."

Blake pulled her hand from Weiss's grasp to allow her friend to move it. White swung her hand in the air as if she was casting an incantation and with sprinkles of blue dust pale cyan spheres formed around her hand like snowflakes. With her free hand, she too raised the Martynaster and twirled it in the air. It seemed to manipulate and loosen the spheres like a magnet.

Blake had to ignore her wounds aching and thriving. She grit her teeth and pulled at her blade from the ribbon attached to her hand. All students weapons acted as a conduit to their aura and semblance.

_Crack. _

Slowly but surely, Tigress was breaking free. Blake decided to ignore it, and concentrate on her own power. "I don't have much time... my doppelganger and I will end us both if I don't find a solution. I need a strategy to beat myself so I can get better." Something in Blake snapped as she looked into the pistol half of the Gambol Shroud.

Weiss's fire was distracted by a drastic pulse of air. Instead of retrapping the beast that was breaking free, she missed her mark entirely. But it wasn't the Tigress that had nearly swept her off her feet. An overwhelming sense of power dominated the room. It flooded in like a vortex, meeting at a single point.

Weiss was conflicted_"Where is that Aura coming from!? I've never felt like this before!"_

Dust had settled everywhere but near Blake. Weiss stood back as the once wounded figure stood stronger and more confident. Even Blake wasn't sure what was going on, but she went with it.

Through her own hands and her weapon, she could feel something anew. Something her reflection had always lacked. The cat beast surged to attack, but completely missed its mark.

Weiss saw Blake. Then Blake. Then Blake. Then Blake. Images of her friend could be seen everywhere around the room. Her shadow was tormented by it, frantically trying to find the real one.

"Mirror images?" Weiss questioned. It was then she recognised what they had spawned from. "Blake's semblance was in my combat notes. She can split into a single image to avoid attacks. That image can also attack in her place..." Weiss looked around. "But there are so many copies now, I can't tell which is real!"

There could have been about ten to fifteen images of the same girl she knew. Whatever immense power was behind it also allowed each one to act independently and attack the Tigress in unison. There was no escape. Rather than fight, Weiss became baffled as she watched each clone slaughter the beast one at a time.

Then the real one shouted.

"Your hopes have become my burden, I will find my _own _liberation!" The sword ran through the Grimm through the skull more cleanly than the carvings on its body. It's body shattered and disintegrated like black rose petals.

All the clones of Blake except the real one had vanished from sight. Her real body nearly collapsed into a heap on the floor. Weiss slid forward, sacrificing the neat folds in her clothes. The squeak of the marble as she slid against it suddenly felt more rugged and coarse. Weiss got up from the now grassy terrain, and rather than immediately question it, she vigorously shook the Faunus.

"What was that!? I've never seen you use your Semblance like that before?"

It was like shaking a ragdoll. Black seemed unable to respond, but opened one eye. "My Semblance went beyond it's usual parameters. I was unaware such a thing was even possible in someone like me."

Weiss was well versed in how Semblance worked. It was a projection of abilities with powers that differed depending on the users mindset. Weiss had control over her Glyphs, Blake usually had control of a single clone. "I'm pretty sure I couldn't have defeated that Grimm unless I used that power."

Blake leaned into Weiss fairly forcefully. White had only just realised that when the waves of Blake's black hair hit her coat, the girl had already slipped into temporary slumber. Rather than wake her, Weiss sat there for a moment. She took a look at the landscape around her recognising the green park that they had once been in. She noticed a shiny white stone on the floor.

"He that's..."

–

"...It took me a while to assess a few things, but this Moon Stone I hold in my hands could be the key to saving her life. But I would need your input Jaune." Professor Ozpin pushed up his glasses as he held forth a small shiny white stone. It was the same one he had pulled from his desk globe.

Jaune was nervous as he glanced around the student medical ward. "Uhhh, what kind of input?"

"I will explain everything as you go. We'll be starting now." Ozpin pressed a little harder on the shiny white stone, causing the light inside to bleed a little red.

Yellowhead raised his hand "But this isn't exactly the best place to be fighting."

The moon stone Ozpin now held was coloured ruby, and he flew it towards the knight in training. Like a pebble being thrown at a victim, Jaune shut his eyes and tried to block it with his arms, but when he reopened his eyes he awoke in a grand arena.

It was like he had been teleported to a different world. He could feel the heat of the air on his skin, the sand in his shoes. The arena itself was very old and standard with a bright sun shining down upon it. There were seats for onlookers, but nobody was there to cheer him on. Jaune could feel the impending danger from hairs standing on their end at the back of his neck. "Uh... where exactly am I?"

A voice boomed from overhead. _"Can you hear me?"_

"Professor Ozpin?" Jaune questioned looking around frantically for the master of Beacon Academy. "Where are you exactly?"

"_At the moment I am just a projection. Is Pyrrah with you?"_

Jaune checked behind himself. Buried partially in the sand was his friend, still unconscious, as he lifted her out. He clutched her hand tightly with regret. "Wake up damn you!"

The hand squeezed a little back. Jaune's eyes widened. It was weak, but Pyrrah was still somewhat conscious. "W-who... who are you...? I can barely see your face..." Her eyes were faded and unfocused but her body didn't have a scratch on it, just like before.

" I'm here Pyrrah!" Jaune looked up and shouted at the air to Ozpin"She's awake! What do I do now?"

"_It's not as simple as that Jaune. She is still very much weak and cannot currently defend herself."_

"Defend her from what?" Jaune wondered.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

"Oh there it is." Jaune shivered with regret as he could hear the sound of heavy steps behind him. He could hear the clang of heavy metal and the release of hot steam. Whatever it was didn't even seem alive.

Jaune had to stand up and face it. With Pyrrah still on the ground he stood up and drew his blade and sheild. "Now it's time to finally prove to you I can stand on my own feet! This is the day I'll save you Pyrrah!"


	8. Achilles Heel

"Do you think Weiss and Blake will ever get back?" Yang asked as she walked down the grey hallway with her little sister. She pulled at her own long, yellow hair and plucked it free of any airborne dust that dared to even touch it.

Ruby stopped walking suddenly and looked back to the vacant hallway behind them. "I don't know. Our team should really get out of the habit of wondering off like that." Ruby seemed kind of saddened.

"We may get into our slip of trouble now and again, but put some trust in them for once. It's not like they've gone out to camp dangerous again. Besides, we're supposed to be huntresses, we're still able to stand on our own you know." Yang smacked hard on Ruby's shoulder. "Come on, let's return to the dorm for now and relax a bit. You need to tell me what's up, Ruby."

Even being a sister to her, Yang acted like a mother sometimes. She got concerned when Ruby was upset over something. It was comforting to know she still had someone in the family she could talk to. Yang grabbed the handle of the door and tugged it open. She tried to resume conversation but her mouth hung open as she looked inside her dorm room.

"What-"

Ruby threw her body backwards upon her bed and she lay with her eyes connected the the white netting that hung over her. "There's things I should probably be telling you."

"No kidding." Yang sat on the carpet holding her folded knees. Her head poked between them staring at the odd entity in front of her.

A Grimm stared straight back into her. It coiled its head around like a curious duck inspecting her being. _"Is anything wrong?" _The creature asked.

"No... just trying to understand why a Pendragon let alone a Grimm is doing in this room." Yang leaned in with squinting eyes trying to believe there was a monster in her room. Yang swooped her head around to Ruby behind her "How the heck did you get him in here anyway?"

"_Illusion. One that bends more than just the senses. Time, space, matter. I can appear as anyone or anything... I just like to appear as someone I remember myself by." _The Pendragon whimpered trying to answer Ruby's silence.

"Well you know, if you keep looking like that you'll attract some unwanted attention." Yang rolled her eyes. "How 'bout you... I don't know, hide as someone else in the school so you doing get picked up on?"

Uther perked his head up in the air and thought about it for a bit. Ruby leaned over the side of the bunk towards the black lizard. "That sounds like a pretty good idea actually. Think you could try it?"

"_If it means not being caged by Professor Port again, I'll try anything." _The docile Grimm nodded. _"But... I've only ever been myself before, I would need a good image to try and be someone else."_

"You said it yourself. You can create an illusion so powerful that it couldn't be picked up by anyone. If we want to find out who you are... we need you to do your best as well. I'm sure you can do it if you think enough."

Ruby slid off the top bunk and touched her feet to the ground. She delved a hand into one of her pockets to her belt and pulled out a photo showing it to Uther. "You think you can do this one?"

The lizard cocked his head back and sighed. _"Oh.. uh... I think I can."_

Yang's eyes had been tricked in front of her. Like a snap, there was no transition, Weiss appeared standing immediately before her.

"So, how about this? Is this accurate?" Uther spoke.

Yang and Ruby were astounded. Even the Martynaster, Weiss's weapon was perfectly formed in the hilt of the dress. Yang with her jaw still hung open, managed to produce words "You even sound like her."

"Nearly." Ruby replied.

"Nearly?" Uther Weiss questioned.

Ruby directed a fist down into her empty hand. "Imagine if you had just smacked an icecream out of a boys hand."

"You deserved that!" Utherweiss pointed at Ruby angrily as if she was the victim. It was almost perfect.

Yang sighed with relief. "You should be able to get away with wondering around the academy grounds for a while, but you know we can't keep you here forever."

"Yeah." Utherweiss nodded. Despite acting in character a moment ago, it was easy for the Grimm to slip out. "Pretending to be a girl is going to be weird though."

Ruby couldn't help but snicker in the background. Even though they weren't the same person, Ruby still heard Weiss in the room and the sentences he made sometimes were so out of character but so authentic she couldn't help but laugh.

"Hey uh, the real Weiss will be back soon, so why don't you go explore a bit. Just make sure you come back before curfew?"

Utherweiss nodded. He/she/it seemed eager to go around the school more freely and left the room. Yang couldn't stop staring the whole time, mesmerized.

Ruby bonked her on the head. "Yang, quit being weird."

Yang pointed at the the split second Utherweiss left the door. "Uhhh... I think we have a problem."

Ruby had missed the memo. "Uh?"

"I don't think Weiss is supposed to be a Faunus." Yang had caught the eye of Uther's black Pendragon tail as his fake ego had left the room. "If anyone sees that..."

Ruby threw her finger forward like Pheonix Wright. "We have to stop her! Him! It!... I don't know." Her own sentence was ruined by her confusion.

Goldilocks was overtaken by her younger sister. She peered from the door to see which way she ran. "Wait, why did she have a photo of Weiss in her pocket anyway?"

–

A heap of bronze metal marched towards Jaune and Pyrrah with a clink. At least that's what it looked like. It gave a few threatening growls under the heap of armour; it was some kind of six legged Grimm. It was impossible to make out what type of animal it was. Each step thundered the sand in the ground. It had a neck like a horse. The helm on its head had two eyes peering out the metal slits.

Jaune laughed a little hysterically as his blade in his hand began to quiver. "T-this has to be some elaborate joke right? Ozpin?"

The professor either remained silent or was completely gone from the virtual plane. Jaune was left alone to deal with the menace as it marched towards him with on thud after the other.

"You have to be kidding me, this looks nine times harder to crack than a Deathstalker!" Jaune took two steps back, nearly walking into Pyrrah who still lay on the ground. _"I have to get Pyrrah to safety first." _

While thinking upon how to tackle the armoured beast in the arena, he thought first to get his friend to safety. With walls to high to climb up, the best spot was at the base of them. Throwing his sword and sheithe down for a quick moment into the sand, he lifted Pyrrah into his arms and ran towards the gate. She had little the energy or concentration to speak or react to him and still seemed. "Who are you...?"

That's when it struck Jaune like a cold dagger. Pyrrah didn't seem to remember who he was. After everything, she hadn't yet replied with his name. "I'm Jaune..." He hoped mentioning his name again would spark a fire in her memory.

"You... seem like a nice guy." The red head chuckled.

Jaune placed her down against the wall, where she could do little but watch him fight his adversary. He had to run now, he didn't want the metal monster to tear her to pieces. Rather than think about it, he charged directly forward using his shield to resist the impact of bronze train. His body shook as both forces came into contact, but he dug his feet into the sand and was not blown away. He could hear something... the sound of of some kind of electrical current up close. He swung his blade at the armour that had been stopped by his shield and it clanged against the metal like a tuning fork.

His sword arm locked as the metal Grimm heaved his struggling body backwards. "I can't move my weapon-"

Buzz.

"Ohhh nonononoNO!" Jaune screamed as some mighty force in his sword knocked him on his back across the sand. He shook his head as he tried to regain his balance. "I don't understand what happened."

He was approached by a large shadow that blocked the emulated sunlight. The helm of the equine-like creature lulled over, ready to stomp him. He noticed nodes on its back that pulsed and crackled. He could feel his sword pulling back towards the armour, desiring to make contact with it again. The force was strong enough to sit him up. "It's like one powerful magnet."

He was in trouble. Rather than let his sword take him to his death, he let go of it. The sword swung so fast that it cracked the armour as it landed. It did something, but at the cost of his main weapon.

Pyrrah seemed to spark with energy. "Jaune..." She had begun to realise who the man was in front of her, saving her life.

Jaune still charged with just his shield, fortunately it was not subject to the magnetism. He could only bash at the crack he had made continuously and hope the metal would break away. Each time he was knocked back. But he got up again and again to try and prevent the Grimm from getting past him.

"I can't make the same mistake again. If you pass me, I would have failed my name as the leader of team JNPR. I would have failed Pyrrah."

The Grimm screamed. Despite a crack in one leg of its armour, it was mostly unscathed.

Pyrrah placed a hand on her chest and breathed in the heated air around her. "You could easily surpass me. But this isn't a fight you can win alone." Whatever had prevented her from standing before didn't stop her from doing so now. She pulled one hand forward and a black aura shined from her palm.

It didn't seem to do anything at first, but Jaune reached in between the legs of the Grimm and tried to pry his sword away. It came off almost immediately. Expecting to pull much harder, Jaune tumbled backwards once again and as he rolled, he saw Pyrrah standing behind him. She had no weapon, but he could see her hand out as if she were casting a spell.

"Pyrrah you're... able to stand."

"Just about." She kept her hand firmly in place. "Listen. You're going to have to destroy those nodes on the back of that creature. If you don't I can't..."

"Can't what?" Jaune watched. She seemed to be struggling against something.

Pyrrah tensed the muscles in her hand. "If I don't use my Semblance to reverse the polarity, you won't be able to attack it with your sword."

Jaune nodded. "This is my one shot."He gripped his sword tightly. Tighter. He knew Pyrrah was behind him warding him, but he didn't want the blade to leave his hand again. Not until this was over and done with. "Hey, you big ugly metal horse thing!" Jaune waved as he sidestepped out of Pyrrahs direction. The Grimm was not amused turning towards him with steam venting from its helm in a rage. It charged, Jaune skipped and rolled forward as it leapt at him. A thud and a crash. Jaune panted as he turned to see the devastation behind him. The monster had leveled half of the Colosseum wall. With its back to the wall Jaune saw the perfect time to strike. He kicked his foot and surged for a vulnerable node in the back of the Grimms plated foot. This time his sword swept with no delay smashing the electrical device like a lightbulb. It buzzed and sparked, causing the rest of the nodes on its body to explode.

The Grimm screamed, stunned by the attack and the buzzing from its body ceased to be. But it was not yet done. Despite being cracked all over and losing shards of metal from its body, it had gotten faster, starting to run at Jaune like a train. He was near inches away from being trampled.

"Get ready!" Pyrrah shouted. She seemed exhausted, but no where near done yet.

"Ready-" Jaune was suddenly ejected into the air by his blade and nearly crashed into Pyrrah from across the arena like he had been hooked from a fishing pole.

"The heck...?" Jaune questioned.

"Reversing the polarity. I drew you away from that thing with a magnetic field." The red head spoke as she watched the armoured beast turn towards them. A third of its armour was missing, revealing some kind of black horse.

"That Grimm was competing against my own Semblance, but I think I can surpass even that. I guess there's a lot I can learn from you."

"Me?"

"You've already mastered your-" Pyrrah stopped as she clutched ahold of Jaunes blade as he held it.

Jaune was anxious, but accepted her hands on his weapons. "Uh, what are you doing?"

"If we don't move fast, we'll be trampled." The girl smiled. She seemed to have more energy than ever. "But I think there's a way we can defeat it."

Jaune liked that smile. It was her usual smile when she had control of the situation. She could feel her hand squeeze a little on top of his own. The black horse in armour continued to march but both Pyrrah and Jaune jumped together in the air, much higher than Jaune had anticipated. Pyrrah let go and used one hand to reverse the field of magnetism against the armour of the Grimm, causing them to soar higher in the air than normal. They rolled and landed in the sand right across the other side of the arena and watched again as the horse crashed.

It was enough to shatter all but a little few pieces of metal on the creatures body. It had no white mask like other Grimm, but now it was as faster than ever. In one last surge it charged like a high speed car towards them.

"This is our only chance!" Pyrrah shouted.

Jaune stepped forward. "I'll take it out with one last hit."

Pyrrah poked her friend. "Jaune."

Jaune looked back, his sword drawn and ready to strike. "What now?"

"Everybody needs a little push from time to time." Pyrrah smiled as she recited her familiar words of advice. Jaune noticed her hands around the sword began to shine with a black aura. Jaune shined too, but with a whiter Aura. There was a tingling aroma of something sweet smelling and soothing, before he and Pyrrah swept the Crocea Mors backwards in unison. Polarity kicked in, and Jaune and Pyrrah were being launched like an arrow from a bowstring. The sword shined brightly against the Grimm that also charged at them headfirst.

"_To be honest, sometimes I wish I always knew what I was doing. But sometimes I don't. That's what interests me about you so much Jaune... you remind me of the person I want to be. This old reflection in a mirror... must be shattered."_

The sword run through. Jaune was the first to open his eyes. He was the first to witness the Grimm's nightmarish face being split in two. It collapsed into a pile and shattered like glass. Bronze and Yellow fell together into the soft heated sand. Poor Jaune could only help but feel deja vu as he was being sandwiched by the ground and Pyrrah's body.

Pyrrah had only realised what had happened and blushed, standing up quickly and dusting off the sand. "I'm so sorry!" She offered her hand to the man and helped him upwards he also brushed himself off. He had trouble looking Pyrrah in the eye. He rubbed the tip of his nose. "A-are you real?"

He had to get it into his head he was still in a virtual reality. The Pyrrah he saw here may look and act the same, but could easily be no more than a quaint dream.

A harsh punch met his chest. He fell backwards, but instead of landing on sand, he fell on something hard. Something like concrete.

Ow.

He could have swore he had blacked out for a minute there. A dark room with a beaming white light shone down on him. He was in a room. A hospital or ward. The head of Pyrrah hovered over him. She frantically scanned over him and checked him over for wounds to make sure he was alright.

"Calm down Miss Nikos." The voice of someone familiar, someone seasons, reanimated the room. Jaune sat up on the floor, still rubbing his head.

"Professor Ozpin!?" Jaune gasped in surprise. It was either another dream or Jaune was back in the real world. "What happened!?"

"You just saved that girl's life." Ozpin remained expressionless. He sounded neither pessimistic or pleased.

Pyrrah was still zipping over his body poking the man in all sorts of places. "Hey, not there! Soft spot." Jaune groaned.

The redhead stood up and backed away with her arms in the air like a criminal. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to touch you in your-" She began to flush when she realised what she had done. The girl had more energy than ever.

"It proves that these moonstones are connected. The soul lost from that other stone could be reinvigorated from this one. It just required a little bit of advanced Huntsmen strategy to do it." Ozpin seemed fully aware of what had transpired within the virtual plane. "It's almost like a virtual projection of a man's psyche, including their weaknesses." He gave Pyrrah the odd stare. "That being said, you both made it in one piece. I have to say, you had me worried there miss Nikos."

"I... I don't remember much. But if it wasn't for Jaune... I don't think I'd still be here." She offered a warm smile towards her team leader.

"I hope you two continue to keep up the effort over the next few days." Ozpin sighed regretfully. "You will need to do your best to stay alive."

It was so abrupt. Ozpin had already lost interest in the situation after Pyrrah's recovery and wondered of to his own affairs. But both Pyrrah and Jaune still had so many questions that needed to be answered.

"Hey Jaune... what time is it?"

Jaune reached for his scroll. "23:50... why do you ask?"

"I was... out for that long?" Pyrrah seemed saddened. "I remember fighting with Ruby and Blake, and then... nothing."

–

"Why did it have to take this long to get back to Beacon!?" Weiss complained at pathway in front of the academy. The full moon shone down upon them likev a ray of light

Behind her was her donkey... or Blake rather, who was the victim that had carried all her shopping bags. There were so many of them whilst Weiss was holding none of them. "Do you even need... Rose petals in a jar... what." Blake's vent of frustration was muted by the gust of wind.

There was an eerie silence over the land. A cold bluster of wind had chased away all the other students back inside their dorms.

Blake decided to speak louder so her friend could hear her his time. "Hey Weiss, what if this world was nothing more than smoke and mirrors?"

"What makes you say that?" Weiss marched towards Blake. But then she vanished. Everything vanished. The world was perfect dark.


End file.
